Archive 1/2022

Danijel Crnčec
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
ORCID: 0000-0002-6182-1756
e-mail: danijel.crncec@fdv.uni-lj.si

Ana Bojinović Fenko
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
ORCID: 0000-0003-1896-9269
e-mail: ana.bojinovic@fdv.uni-lj.si

Abstract

The article focuses on Slovenia’s unique historical and geopolitical position, which makes the country a highly unusual EU (Central East European – CEE) member state and determines its stance on the EU’s energy policy with respect to the USA and Russia. It pursues the research question: how does Slovenia balance between the EU energy policy framework and its particular national energy interests related to Russia and the USA? Conceptually, the article builds on the Europeanization of foreign policy applying the downloading path to Slovenian external energy policy via three indicators: the increasing salience of the European political agenda, adherence to common (EU) objectives, and internalization of EU membership and its integration process. It employs a method of statistical data and content analysis of documents and secondary sources within two case studies of energy projects, namely the South Stream involving Russia, and long-term use of nuclear energy for electricity production involving the USA. The results substantiate that Slovenia has managed to balance between its energy-related national interests and the EU energy framework by formulating and legitimizing the former within the EU policy framework. However, the second case reveals that the open EU legal framework on the member states’ choice of nuclear energy cooperatives is a notable limitation to Europeanization due to the tendency for interests in national foreign policy and domestic politics – both performed by the government – to drift away from general EU values. In the conclusion, the article identifies two important implications arising from the case of Slovenia as a stress test of the EU’s external dimension of energy policy.

Key words

EU energy policy; Slovenia; Russia; USA; Europeanization; energy mix

András Deák
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungary
ORCID: 0000-0002-8623-1912
e-mail: deak.andras@krtk.hu

John Szabo
Central European University, Hungary
ORCID: 0000-0002-8224-1013
e-mail: szabo.john@krtk.hu

Csaba Weiner
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungary
ORCID: 0000-0002-9524-1215
e-mail: weiner.csaba@krtk.hu

Abstract

South-Eastern European (SEE) countries are typically keen to maintain the status quo in their energy systems, generally characterized by underinvestment, high coal share and utility affordability needs. Their energy mixes have historically been determined by external factors, currently mainly related to decarbonization pressure. This article assesses how the EU’s ongoing decarbonization-driven withdrawal from supporting natural gas projects shapes fuel choices in nine selected SEE countries and may have geopolitical consequences. It is based on more than 70 interviews with stakeholders from these countries, EU institutions, and international organizations. In exploring and theorizing the geopolitical ramifications of the energy transition in SEE, it applies a novel approach, which draws on theories of power and the concept of an assemblage, which we link to theories on entanglement and disentanglement. We find that the EU’s climate policy significantly changes local infrastructural assemblages and the EU’s disentanglement from natural gas goes against Russian and US efforts. By wielding its power to support such an energy transition, the EU has shifted the bipolar system ‘EU/US vis-à-vis Russia’ defined along a single geopolitical ruleset (supply security), to a tripolar disposition ‘EU-Russia-USA’ defined along two rulesets (supply security and climate policy). In addition, China has become involved. States will thus have to take crucial energy policy decisions in a new geopolitical context.

Key words

energy transition; South-Eastern Europe; assemblage; natural gas; geopolitics; EU; Russia

Patricia Otero-Felipe
University of Burgos, Spain
ORCID: 0000-0003-2536-6490
e-mail: potero@ubu.es

Leticia M. Ruiz Rodríguez
University of Madrid
ORCID: 0000-0002-3279-3549
e-mail: leticiamaria.ruiz@cps.ucm.es

Abstract

The internal unity of party organizations is an important aspect that impacts not only their dynamics but also their credibility in the eyes of the electorate. One commonly-used strategy for measuring this unity is to analyze the degree of intra-party agreement on policy issues. Despite this importance, there is a lack of up-to-date understanding of the internal unity of political parties in Latin America and of its determinants. In this article, we analyze the degree of agreement in the views of legislators’ ideological self-placement over the course of the last thirty years. Evidence suggests that this level of agreement is greater amongst members of left-wing parties than amongst their right-wing rivals. As has also been shown in Europe, in Latin America, the emphasis of these parties on ideology is a major influence on their dynamics, and the effects of this include more similar ideo­logical identities between their members.

Key words

Latin America; party unity; coherence; ideology; political parties

Martin Plešivčák
Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
ORCID: 0000-0001-6065-8582
martin.plesivcak@uniba.sk

Abstract

The aim of the article is to review the issue of performance voting in Slovakia on the national level but especially on the level of individual regions and districts. For this purpose, an ex-post index of government support is used. This indicator expresses the measure of growth or decline in a government’s (governing parties’) electoral support in parliamentary elections at the end of its functional period in comparison with its start, while also taking into consideration election turnout in the given elections. Governments in the period 2002–2020 are analyzed. In none of the five cases did the government manage to achieve a more favourable result at the end of its mandate than at the beginning. Government support on all levels showed a dramatic decline over time, particularly after 2010. An interesting finding is that on the sub-state level, while considering election turnout, differences in the evaluation of governments’ performance during their term were not, on average, particularly significant between districts. When evaluating the measure of government support, we can on the level of regions and districts talk about a moderately large to large decline in election support for the individual governments (with the exception of the 2006–2010 government). While in the first decade of the new millennium, economic reforms and the state of the economy played a key role in the reckoning for the government, after 2010 more specific political events defined by differences in values between governing parties, scandals or simply the need for change due to ‘material fatigue’ were behind the changes in government. In these cases, a great deal depended above all on the measure of party self-identification. The study showed that spatially disaggregated parts of the country (regions and districts) are similarly sensitive to these stimuli when compared to one another.

Key words

performance voting; parliamentary elections; Slovakia; regions; districts

Abstract

Margarita M. Balmaceda: RUSSIAN ENERGY CHAINS: THE REMAKING OF TECHNOPOLITICS FROM SIBERIA TO UKRAINE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION. New York: Columbia University Press. 2021. 421 pages.

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Robert B. Talisse: OVERDOING DEMOCRACY: WHY WE MUST PUT POLITICS IN ITS PLACE. New York: Oxford University Press. 2019. 216 pages.

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