Bøger af Nico Rausch

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: 1,3, Vilnius University (Vilnius University), language: English, abstract: This short but fresh analysis of media and its role in democratization will background the following paper about Ukraine¿s media in democratization. As it will show, all above discussed factors matter in the Ukrainian case.I will give a general overview about the development of media freedom in Ukraine. Therefore I will analyse various different indices:Freedomhouse- Freedom of the PressFreedomhouse- Nations in Transit/ Independent MediaReporters Without Borders (RWB)- Country RankingIREX- Media Sustainability IndexThese indices (except NIT) come to the same conclusions even if they use different approaches. Freedomhouse and RWB ratings are empirically quite similar (Becker et al. 2004) but critics about an overall American influence over Freedomhouse lead me to use both of them. There are more media freedom measurements but the above-mentioned correlate in their results and are broad enough to analyse the situation in Ukraine (ibid.). Additionally I will use the reports of these organisations and other scientific literature to explain the major changes. The questions, if media was beneficial for democratic change or not, will be crucial as well as if media does have affects (every time). I will describe the regime change (Orange Revolution) with the major focus on the media. Was it supportive or not? Did the media lead or follow?I will describe the major outcomes for the media after the Orange Revolution and the future prospects on its role for democratization.[...]

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Political systems in general and in comparison, grade: 1,3, Vilnius University, language: English, abstract: This thesis studies the prospects for democratic transition in Cuba and Belarus. The theoretical part argues that civil society is an important variable in transition theory and a necessary condition for democratic transition. It furthermore argues that in relation with the political culture of one society and the respective type of regime present in one country it is decisive for a successful democratization. Therefore the theoretical framework to study democratic transition should be widened from elites to masses and from a short term perspective to a long term one. This is somewhat different from other studies that concentrate on structural factors like economic development, economic crisis or international influence to explain democratic transition.This thesis undertakes a qualitative comparative analysis of two nontransition cases, Belarus and Cuba, to avoid the selection bias of researching only successful cases of democratic transition and to solve the problem of not finding any individually necessary or jointly sufficient conditions for democratization. The aforementioned factors are analyzed for each case, comparing the main findings and drawing conclusions.The analysis shows that the state of civil society in both countries can only be characterized as embryonic. In the case of Belarus the relatively good starting position of the embryonic civil society after the dissolution of the USSR was not used to strengthen itself. The civil society forces lost continuously support and strength and therefore the ability to fight for democratic transition. The weakness of the Belarusian civil society was therefore a factor that led to a stabilizing of the authoritarian regime.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - History of Political Systems, grade: 1,3, Vilnius University, language: English, abstract: To describe the Ukrainian nationalism I will also use the famous concept from the Czech historian Hroch who is dividing the national movements into three phases. Phase 1) cultural awakening- a small group of educated people develops an interest in language, history and folklore of an ethnic group.Phase 2) national agitation- the implementation of national consciousness into a wider circle of the population in order to mobilize them and to integrate them into a national community which will lead to Phase 3) mass movement with its goal of political autonomy (Hroch in Kappeler 2001/ Weeks 1996). The case of Ukraine is in this sense not very easy to look at because of several events, in form of national policies of two influential Empires. Another interesting theoretical point of view is the distinction between ¿ancient¿ and ¿young¿ nations and their prospects to form a successful national movement. The former having a tradition of a national elite, and high culture, and the latter not. Young nations also have an incomplete social structure and almost no urban middle class. They also are fighting first primarily against the foreign elite and less against the state. The main aim is to create firstly a high culture of their own. Ukraine is seen as such a ¿small¿ or ¿young¿ nation (Kappeler 2001).I will describe Ukrainian nationalism in the context of modernization and mobilization through social, economic and political changes as well as on special events that might had a greater impact on the Ukrainian nationalism. The time period covered in this paper will be from the starting point of pre-historical Ukrainian ¿nation¿ to the reenactment of the above described third phase of national mass movement.

Scientific Study from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1,0, Vilnius University (Vilnius University), language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to find out the major changes in interests of the Ukrainian society and how they determined party preferences. Therefore it will not only analyse parliamentary elections but also presidential elections. The presidential ¿ parliamentary system of Ukraine (until 2005), with crucial powers of the president is determining presidential elections as important, even if parties itself play a less important role than candidates. Change of interests also can be visible by voting for one or another candidate at least for major cleavages in the society. Presidential elections also normally work for the consolidation of party competition (Harasymiw 2002).The first part of this work will lay the theoretical ground for the analyses of voter preferences in Ukraine. It will deal with a generalization of interest building theory and a more closer view on transforming post-communist societies. Furthermore it will present two concepts which are important in explaining the interconnection between society and political interests. The first concept deals with class inequalities as base for class specific interest and voting behaviour. But this concept cannot give enough explanation for the case of Ukraine, due to its special political development in general and its different historical experience during Soviet times. Therefore I will present a second concept; the concept of cleavages. It is more genereal in describing the connections between specific interest and voter preferences and therefore more useful than the former concept.In the second part of this paper I will analyse the parliamentary and presidential elections of Ukraine until 2006. Therefore I will describe important surroundings, present the results and analyse the major cleavages or interest groups.[....]