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Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

This thesis examines how the vision for the reform of modern Greek, which is also called the purist project, was conceived in the second half of the nineteenth century. The aim is to highlight those factors that led the purist language (katharevousa) to its failure in the new century. This research focuses primarily on the consolidation (especially during the years 1850-1880), of an ideology that supports and legitimates the position of an archaic variety of modern Greek (katharevousa) as a national language. Moreover, our target is to study, in this specific ideological context, the formation of linguistic projects and strategies which aim to accomplish the process of building a national language. These projects involve a series of representations concerning the idea that scholars have of the target language, its setting and its diffusion, the time perspective of the reform and the role of social actors, or even the place that is reserved for vernacular language in this process. We have observed that the perception of history of the Greek language and its role in society, described in the second part of this thesis, has implications for how to define the target language, the direction of the reform and the prioritization of its objectives. The interest of this research also focuses on the expectations and attitudes of the well read elite class vis à vis the state, in areas where political power is involved, as well as where it remains in the background. Finally, we have outlined the framework from which the Demoticist movement emerges, at the end of the nineteenth century. ; La présente étude part du postulat que l'histoire du grec moderne est l'histoire de ses locuteurs, de la société au sein de laquelle il se parle et des instances du pouvoir politique de cette société. Elle examine et analyse un ensemble de pratiques, qui se rapportent à la question de la réforme du grec moderne au XIXe siècle: recueil lexicographique, concours philologiques, élaboration de glossaires et de dictionnaires, stratégies de diverses associations et revues littéraires visant à favoriser telle norme ou tel usage, collaboration entre les institutions et les cercles de lettrés. L'autre axe de cette étude réside dans l'examen des représentations sociales des acteurs, à savoir ce qu'ils pensent de leur langue ou, en d'autres termes, ce qu'ils pensent de la façon dont on la parle et dont on l'écrit, ce qu'ils pensent de son histoire, et de l'histoire de ses locuteurs. En somme, il s'agit de questionner l'influence réciproque entre ces pratiques et une connaissance commune, socialement élaborée, afin de pouvoir rendre compte de l'évolution du grec pendant le XIXe siècle.Dans les pages de ce livre, l'auteur illustre une configuration d'événements régionaux et européens, ainsi qu'un contexte historique et idéologique précis qui ont mené dans un premier temps à la consolidation du projet puriste, puis à son bouleversement, à l'aube du nouveau siècle, avec l'émergence du mouvement démoticiste. Inscrit dans le mouvement des idées de son époque, ce projet est le fruit du travail d'un ensemble de lettrés et en même temps le produit du contexte socio-historique grec, balkanique et européen à la fois. Il répond en effet aux objectifs stratégiques du nationalisme grec, tels qu'ils sont définis par le pouvoir politique et les élites lettrées. En même temps, l'auteur suit la composition d'une nouvelle image du grec moderne et l'émergence d'une autre conception de son évolution historique. De l'activité, de la réflexion et des efforts des savants qui ont travaillé sur la langue grecque, sur son histoire, sur l'histoire et la culture de ses locuteurs, sont nés des principes, des axiomes, des points de vue ou des positions, dont certains ont constitué les mythes fondateurs du grec. Certains seront repris et réadaptés par les démoticistes pour arriver jusqu'à nos jours, faisant preuve de persistance et de longévité. Il s'agit d'un ensemble de jugements et d'opinions sur le grec et son histoire qui relèvent plutôt des idées reçues et de l'idéologie et qui tirent leur origine de la littérature linguistique et philologique du XIXe siècle.

El trabajo analiza las características y los principales cambios, continuidades y reformulaciones ideológicas de las discursividades de los actores sociopolíticos clave de la Argentina, entre el período inmediatamente previo y la etapa de sedimentación de la hegemonía menemista, de modo tal de incorporar algunos elementos explicativos de la eficacia de la hegemonía neoliberal en la Argentina. Para ello, realiza un pormenorizado estudio de las discursividades público- mediáticas, tomando como eje un análisis comparado del período 1988-1993. El marco teórico metodológico se basa en la teoría del discurso de Ernesto Laclau. Las fuentes se concentran en los medios gráficos, analizando un corpus de discursos sobre temas políticos, en sentido amplio, en la medida en que son reproducidos en los principales diarios de circulación nacional (Clarín, La Nación y Página 12). La estrategia metodológica consiste en analizar la estructuración de las cadenas equivalenciales y las fronteras políticas, reconstruyendo paquetes de discursos, agrupados según regularidades observables. Se analizaron los discursos sobre el total de los mismos, incluyendo también el análisis en términos individualizados y colectivos. La hipótesis referida al desvanecimiento del discurso nacional popular fue confirmada, manteniéndose sólo residuos de este discurso en la etapa de sedimentación de la hegemonía menemista. En ese marco, el menemismo obtuvo un considerable éxito para modificar las identidades y tradiciones existentes y construir un nuevo sentido común en torno al neoliberalismo. ; This article analyzes the main characteristics and changes, continuums, and ideological reformulations of the discourse of key sociopolitical actors in Argentina between the immediately preceding period and the sedimentation stage of Menemist hegemony in order to incorporate some factors that account for the efficiency of Neoliberal hegemony in Argentina. To this end, it provides a detailed examination of speeches in public and in the media based on a comparative analysis of the period from 1988 to 1993. The theoretical methodological framework is based on Ernesto Laclau's theories of discourse. The sources focus on graphic media, analyzing a body of speeches of broad political issues transcribed in the most important newspapers with national circulation (i.e. Clarín, La Nación, and Página 12). The methodological strategy entails an analysis of the structure of equivalent links and political borders, rebuilding a series of speeches grouped together on the basis of observable regularities. A review was conducted of the aggregate of the speeches, including an analysis on an individualized and a collective basis. The hypothesis that refers to the fading out of the national popular discourse was confirmed; only remnants of this kind of discourse were left during the sedimentation period of Menem's hegemonic regime. In this regard, Menemism accomplished considerable success in changing existing identities and traditions and building a new common sense around Neoliberalism. ; O trabalho analisa as características e as principais mudanças, continuidades e reformulações ideológicas das discursividades dos principais atores sóciopolíticos da Argentina, entre o período imediatamente anterior e a etapa de sedimentação da hegemonia menemista, de forma a incorporar alguns elementos explicativos da eficácia da hegemonia neoliberal na Argentina. Para isso, realiza um estudo detalhado das discursividades do público e da mídia, usando como eixo uma análise comparativa do período 1988-1993. O quadro teórico metodológico é baseado na teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau. As fontes se concentram na mídia impressa, analisando um corpus de discursos sobre temas políticos, em sentido amplo, na medida em que são reproduzidos nos principais jornais de circulação nacional (Clarín, La Nación e Página 12). A estratégia metodológica consiste em analisar a estruturação das cadeias equivalenciais e as fronteiras políticas, reconstruindo pacotes de discursos, agrupados segundo regularidades observáveis. Foram analisados os discursos sobre o total dos mesmos, incluindo também a análise em termos individuais e coletivos. A hipótese referente ao desaparecimento do discurso nacional popular foi confirmada, mantendo-se somente os resíduos desse discurso na fase de sedimentação da hegemonia menemista. Nesse contexto, o menemismo teve um êxito considerável em modificar as identidades e tradições existentes e construir um novo senso comum em torno do neoliberalismo. ; Fil: Fair, Hernán. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

У статті проаналізовано як, починаючи з 1991 р., в українських шкільних підручниках з історії (підручники з всесвітньої історії тут не розглядаються) мінялися інтерпретації подій 1939–1945 рр.; відбувалася поступовавідмова від успадкованого з радянської історіографії поняття «Велика Вітчизняна війна» і запроваджувалося поняття «українського виміруДругої світової війни». Оглянуто підходи до оцінювання підручників з історії, запропоновані європейськими науковцями багатоперспективність, критичне мислення, сформоване на підставі аналізу різноманітних джерел,а завдяки цьому – виховання толерантності й уникання однобічності).Зауважено, що, поділяючи настанови щодо багатоперспективності й критичності, українські науковці наголошують також на потребі надати «відімені науки» згусток знань, потрібних молодій людині для ототожненнясебе з країною (Н. Яковенко), дати молодій людині уяву про пов'язаністьіз своїм суспільством і його минулим (Я. Грицак), та деконструюватифундаментальний радянський міф, котрий залишається стрижневим компонентом ідеологічного колоніалізму щодо України – міф «ВеликоїВітчизняної війни» і «Великої Перемоги» (Л. Зашкільняк). У статті показано, що перші українські підручники хронологічно йконцептуально відповідали радянському наративу про «Велику Вітчизнянувійну». Натомість кожне нове покоління підручників, написаних згідноз оновленими та удосконаленими програмами викладання, серед авторів яких науковці – фахівці з цієї тематики, висвітлювало події Другоїсвітової війни дедалі повніше й адекватніше, поступово відмовляючисьвід радянської міфології, використовуючи новітні методики викладанняі різноманітні джерела. Висвітлено процес формування «українськоговиміру Другої світової війни», покликаний відірвати освітній простірУкраїни від міфології Великої Вітчизняної війни та культу Перемоги,мусив конкурувати з істотним політичним, медійним та культурнимвпливом Росії на український культурний і освітній простір. Окрім того,автори підручників зіткнулися з потужним опором частини українськихполітичних еліт – комуністів, прихильників ідей «русского мира», серед яких було чимало народних депутатів, науковців, освітян, діячів культури. Вони критикували підручники цього періоду, звинувачуючи авторів у перекручуванні правди та відмові від «Великої Перемоги». Названо ключові чинники створення і постійного удосконалення/переписування підручників з історії України: суспільна трансформація, політична свобода, світоглядне й культурне різноманіття, інтелектуальна сміливість, можливість проводити вільні дискусії, а також – потребаформування нової української ідентичності задля ототожнення себе ізкраїною. Ключові слова: історична освіта, наратив, підручник історії,історіографія, міфологія Великої Вітчизняної війни, український вимірДругої світової війни. ; The article analyzes changes in the interpretations of events during the period1939–1945 that have occurred in the writing of Ukrainian school historytextbooks since 1991 (World history textbooks are not considered here). Therewas a gradual rejection of the concept of the "Great Patriotic War" inheritedfrom Soviet historiography, superceded by the introduction of the conceptof the "Ukrainian dimension of the Second World War". The article examinesapproaches proposed by European scholars for evaluating history textbooks. These comprise multiple viewpoints based on the analysis of varioussources of the formation of critical thinking, perspectives that enable the developmentof tolerance and avoidance of one-sidedness. It has been pointed outthat while sharing guidelines for multiple views and critical judgment, Ukrainian scholars also emphasize the need to provide a complex of knowledge "onbehalf of science" necessary for young people in order to promote their senseof identification with the country (N. Yakovenko); solidly grounded knowledgeso as to provide them with conceptions about their connection to their society and their past (Y. Hrytsak), and to counter and critically reflect on the fundamentalSoviet myth that remains the core component of ideological colonialismin Ukraine – namely the myth of the "Great Patriotic War" and the "GreatVictory" (L. Zashkilnyak). The article shows that the first Ukrainian textbooks corresponded chronologicallyand conceptually to the Soviet narrative about the "Great PatrioticWar". However, each new generation of textbooks – by authors who are expertson this subject, and written following updated and improved teaching programs– presented the events of the Second World War more adequately, graduallyabandoning Soviet mythology, employing the newest teaching methodologiesand various sources. The previously documented process of the formation of the "Ukrainian dimension of the Second World War" – designed to removethe Ukrainian educational space from the mythology of the "Great Patrioticcultural and educational space. Moreover, Ukrainian textbook authors faceda powerful opposition by a segment of the Ukrainian political elite – communists,supporters of ideas from the "Russian world" ("Russkiy mir"). Amongthese were many MPs, scholars, educators, and cultural activists. They criticizedvarious textbooks, accusing the authors of distorting the truth and in denialof the "Great Victory". The article seeks to identify the key factors underlying the creating and continuousimprovement and rewriting of history in Ukrainian textbooks: socialtransformation, political freedom, ideological and cultural diversity, intellectualcourage, the possibility for free discussion, and the need to shape a new sense of Ukrainian identity to link citizens with the country. Keywords: historical education, narrative, history textbooks, historiography,mythology of the "Great Patriotic War", the Ukrainian dimension of the SecondWorld War. ; В статье проанализировано как, начиная с 1991 г., в украинских школьных учебниках по истории (учебники по всемирной истории здесь не рассматриваются) менялись интерпретации событий 1939-1945 гг.; происходил постепенный отказ от унаследованного из советской историографии понятия «Великая Отечественная война» и внедрялось понятие «украинского измерения Второй мировой войны». Рассмотрены подходы к оценке учебников по истории, предложенные европейскими исследователями (многоперспективность, критическое мышление, сформированное на основании анализа разнообразных источников, а благодаря этому – воспитание толерантности и избежание односторонности). Отмечено, что, разделяя наставления касательно многоперспективности и критичности, украинские ученые подчеркивают также на потребности предоставить «от имени науки» сгусток знаний, необходимых молодому человеку для отождествления себя со страной (Н. Яковенко), дать молодежи представление о связанности со своим обществом и его прошлым (Я. Грицак), а также деконструировать фундаментальный советский миф, который остается стержневым компонентом идеологического колониализма относительно Украины – миф «Великой Отечественной войны» и «Великой Победы» (Л. Зашкильняк). В статье показано, что первые украинские учебники хронологически и концептуально соответствовали советскому нарративу о «Великой Отечественной войне». В то же время каждое новое поколение учебников, написанных в соответствии с обновленными и усовершенствованными программами преподавания, среди авторов которых ученые – специалисты по этой тематике, освещало события Второй мировой войны все полнее и адекватнее, постепенно отказываясь от советской мифологии, используя новейшие методики преподавания и разнообразные источники. Освещен процесс формирования «украинского измерения Второй мировой войны», призванный оторвать образовательное пространство Украины от мифологии Великой Отечественной войны и культа Победы, который должен конкурировать с существенным политическим, медийным и культурным влиянием России на украинское культурное и образовательное пространство. Кроме того, авторы учебников столкнулись с мощным сопротивлением части украинских политических элит – коммунистов, сторонников идей «русского мира», среди которых было множество народных депутатов, ученых, педагогов, деятелей культуры. Они критиковали учебники этого периода, обвиняя авторов в перекручивании правды и отказе от «Великой Победы». Названы ключевые факторы создания и постоянного усовершенствования / переписывания учебников по истории Украины: общественная трансформация, политическая свобода, мировоззренческое и культурное разнообразие, интеллектуальная смелость, возможность проводить свободные дискуссии, а также – необходимость формирования новой украинской идентичности ради отождествления себя со страной. Ключевые слова: историческое образование, нарратив, учебник истории, историография, мифология Великой Отечественной войны, украинское измерение Второй мировой войны.

There has been an increase in the number of populist parties and movements, especially in Europe, yet their electoral successes have been sporadic. In Scandinavian countries the presence of such parties and movements has become a steady and, it seems, permanent feature of the political landscape. Their once shocking rhetoric and policies have become part of the political mainstream. The ability of populist political parties in Scandinavia to gain electoral success, hence to stabilise, may suggests that populism in Scandinavia may either result from a peculiar type of diversification within the very broadly conceived populist political stream, or may be one of unexpected outcomes of the so-called Scandinavian model of politics to be regarded then as a rather fertile ground for populists. The contribution that this study aims to offer is two-fold: placing Scandinavian populism in a wider context, thereby addressing the issue of the uniqueness of Scandinavian political culture; problematizing the rather common assumption that the variance among populist phenomena has increased exponentially over time. Indeed, the following specific key-questions have been asked and answered: are there distinctive facts that set today's populist movements in Scandinavia apart from populist and nationalist ideas and programmes of the past? What are the ties relating the different populist movements in Scandinavia to each other? Are there any compelling indicators that may convince us that Scandinavian populism is somewhat different from its counterparts elsewhere? Finally, based on a number of findings, we shall evaluate the claim that a distinct, Scandinavian form of populism exists. The first part of the text deals with the complex question choosing a working definition of populism. It then moves on to describing the historical understandings of 'populism' and 'nationalism', as well as identifying some of the main distinguishing features of populist and nationalist movements in the past, for then to describe, through case studies, some of the many features we may find in different, contemporary, populist party 'families'. We sustain the that a typology defined by two overarching families of populism - whether it allows for further sub-families or not - fails to capture the full range of phenomena referred to as populist politics in Scandinavia. By first identifying some of the historical cases in which evident traces of populism are detectable, we shall see that the split nature of populism itself is not a result of a process of diversification, but rather a case of different phenomena that, from the very outset, happened to share a few common features. We propose an interpretation by which, rather than fascism being a form of populism, or combining populism with another ideology, the two belong to a similar type of ideology: they can both be understood as belonging among the so-called 'thin-centred ideologies'. Here we do not mean that a similarity in content is necessarily significant, but rather that they both, when combined with ideological content from the more traditional left – or right-wing, or with a combination of policies from both ends of the spectrum, become political programmes with high potential and appeal, especially during times of (perceived) crisis. Thus, what we have been able to observe is that the theory that nationalism arises in times of crises where, typically the lower middle classes, or the lower classes, feel the pressure of economic decline in combination with factors such as immigration, seems to hold the first test against historical cases. We further conclude that populist radical right parties in Europe share a core ideology of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism. In the contemporary context, we conclude that a definition of populism in terms of one or more fixed, necessary and exclusive common feature(s) is unfeasible, and we must then continue with a definition of populism which is in line with Sartori's minimal definition, in combination with the presumption that a plethora of sub-categories may exist. The common denominators are thus: the reference to the 'people' as harbouring the real essence of a particular society, to the 'populists' as having discovered the best way of letting the spirit of the people speak, and to the perceived conflict of interest between the people on the one hand and a particular, or general, elite on the other. The investigation of the parallels between the historical definitions of 'populism' and 'nationalism' helps us understand the ideological roots of each of the populist parties and movements in Scandinavia. For example, the abandonment of the use of the rational and legal concept of 'citizenship' in favour of the use of the vague concept of 'Volk' among the German romantics is one of the features that emphasize how the Scandinavian parties have adopted many of the ideas of this particular movement; especially in terms of defining the concepts of 'nation' and 'national-culture', or '-character'. The second part of the text includes a general introduction to some interesting social and political features of each of the national contexts within which our subjects of study belong. We propose the term 'national-populist' to denominate the general typology of most Scandinavian populist parties and movements. We also show how many of these parties have direct links with both national-socialist parties of the past and with each other, and how the promotion of Scandinavian regionalism has created a sense of shared experience and ontology. We also show, however, how local circumstances and historical features have shaped some of these parties. We then move on to treat the societal features that are most frequently used by journalists and scholars, not to mention by Scandinavian populist leaders themselves, to explain the founding of the populist parties and movements in Scandinavian countries on the one hand, and their relative popularity on the other. It becomes clear that many of the features of the populist parties in Scandinavian countries are shared (such as ideas about what constitutes a 'folk' and a nation, a shared Scandinavian regionalism and a common perception of economic and social crisis), the emphasis on each of these features differs from party to party. It also become clear, however, that the features that are shared among these parties, cannot claim exclusivity. Scandinavian national-populist parties and movements do thus not constitute a separate sub-category of populism, but rather constitute examples of the slightly wider sub-category of 'national-populism'.

Studies show that our ideas of gender and sexuality are closely linked with the language that is used to define and describe these two notions. It has been further proven that there is a very close relationship between issues related to sexuality and concepts such as gender, (political) power, exploitation, supremacy and mobbing, to name but a few. Social, cultural, political, historical and other discussions regarding questions such as what sexuality is and what is permissible, acceptable and even "normal", are inevitably part of linguistic discourse. In this MA thesis I thus research and analyze the complexity and multifacetedness of the relationship between language, discourse, gender and sexuality in the translations of English texts. I focus on the translations of texts which could be considered ambiguous in regards to expressing gender. This refers to the co-dependence between the source text, male or female translator and culture, as well as the broader circumstances that influence the translation or target text. In the first part of the thesis I focus on the theoretical background and critical insights into the relationships between language, gender and sexuality. The next stage comprises a comparison of English texts from various media sources (classical and electronic) on both linguistic and discursive levels, with the translations of these texts into Slovene, Croatian and German provided by future translators. The second part of the thesis, the research, comprises two parts: first, I am interested in how these texts and their translations are dealt with by the students – future translators – from four faculties in Maribor, Graz, Zagreb and Split. I am further interested in the level of the respondents' awareness regarding the appropriate use of politically correct expressions, which I assume they are able to use accordingly in their translations. The second part of the research presents data collected based on the questionnaire, which was answered by future translators immediately after completion of the survey. Since the students come from different backgrounds, I am mostly interested in the reasons and possible factors that have influenced their translation choices (of individual words, expressions (terms), phrases, etc.). There are two general assumptions based on the literature review and the analysis of the translations and answers to the questionnaires provided by the future translators. The first one refers to the target text – translation – which, in most cases, depends on the current culture, social environment and time period. The emphasis is placed on the co-dependence between the source text, translator (male or female) as well as culture and other broader background circumstances which influence the translation or the target text. This assumption emphasizes the importance of translators possessing a high level of knowledge and intercultural awareness. The latter was noticable in the translations under research, yet we are still, as regards politically correct expressions, in the process of introducing norms and guidelines on a higher, state level, which might be later generally applied. The second general assumption refers to cultural, social, political, historical and ideological paradigms which annul the ideal of a translation as embodying or reflecting neutral, impartial linguistic and discursive text fidelity. From the translations into three languages, I was able to establish that there are no ideal translations. Furthermore, it was extremely difficult to find gender neutral translations, because of the differences between the three languages analyzed in the study, which would fulfill expectations in the three culturally and politically different cultures according to their individual ideological guidelines. We also have to be aware of the rapid degree of globalization, progress and change which create differences and shape new rules, rendering the old ones obsolete. ; Raziskave kažejo, da so naše ideje o spolu in seksualnosti vezane na jezik, ki ga uporabljamo pri njihovem definiranju in opisovanju. Nadalje je potrjeno, da so vprašanja seksualnosti zelo povezana s pojmi, kot so spol, (politična) moč, izkoriščanje, prevlada, mobing in podobno. Družbene, kulturne, politične, zgodovinske in še kakšne razprave o tem, kaj je seksualnost, kaj je dovoljeno, sprejemljivo, celo »normalno«, so neizogibno del jezikovnega diskurza. V magistrski nalogi raziskujem in analiziram kompleksnost in večplastnost odnosa med jezikom, diskurzom, spolom in seksualnostjo pri prevajanju angleških besedil. Osredotočam se na prevode besedil, ki bi lahko glede na izražanje spola veljali za nejasne oziroma dvoumne. Gre za soodvisnost med izvirnim besedilom, prevajalcem ali prevajalko in kulturo oziroma širšimi okoliščinami, ki iz ozadja vplivajo na prevod oziroma ciljno besedilo. V prvem delu magistrske naloge podam pregled literature in kritični vpogled v odnos med jezikom, spolom in seksualnostjo. Nato angleška besedila iz različnih medijev (klasičnih in elektronskih) na jezikovni in diskurzivni ravni primerjam s prevodi teh besedil v slovenščino, hrvaščino in nemščino, ki so jih prispevali študenti prevajalstva. Drugi del naloge, raziskava, zajema dva dela: najprej me zanima, kako se teh besedil in njihovih prevodov lotevajo študenti prevajalstva, in sicer na štirih fakultetah: mariborski, graški, zagrebški in splitski. Nadalje me zanima raven zavedanja anketiranih študentov prevajalstva o pravilnosti in primernosti rabe t.i. politično korektnih izrazov, za katere menim, da jih znajo ustrezno uporabljati v svojih prevodih. Drugi del raziskave poteka s pomočjo anket, na katere neposredno po prevajanju besedil odgovarjajo študenti prevajalci. Ker izhajajo iz različnih okolij, nas pri tem zanimajo predvsem vzroki in morebitni drugi dejavniki, ki vplivajo na njihovo izbiro besed, izrazov, fraz itd. Pri proučevanju literature in pri analizi prevodov ter odgovorov na anketna vprašanja, podanih s strani študentov prevajalstva, izpostavim dve splošni predpostavki. Prva se nanaša na ciljno besedilo, torej prevod, ki je v večini primerov odvisen od kulture, družbenega okolja ter časa, v katerem živi prevajalec. Pomemben je torej odnos med izvirnim besedilom, prevajalcem/prevajalko ter ostalimi širšimi okoliščinami, ki na prevod oziroma ciljno besedilo vplivajo iz ozadja. Predpostavka poudarja pomembnost visoke stopnje znanja in medkulturne ozaveščenosti prevajalcev. Slednjo je bilo sicer mogoče zaslediti v prevodih, vendar smo v tem oziru (predvsem glede politično korektnega izražanja) šele v procesu uvajanja določenih norm in pravil na višji, državni ravni, ki bi jim potem lahko sledili. Druga splošna predpostavka se nanaša na kulturne, družbene, politične, zgodovinske ali ideološke paradigme, ki razveljavljajo ideal prevajanja kot neke nevtralne, nepristranske jezikovne in diskurzivne besedilne zvestobe. Iz prevodov v tri jezike, ki sicer geografsko mejijo drug na drugega, je bilo mogoče ugotoviti, da idealnih prevodov ni. Prav tako je zaradi razlik med jeziki, ki so bili vključeni v raziskavo, zelo težko najti nevtralne prevode, ki bi zadostili pričakovanjem v treh kulturno in politično različnih družbah, ki sledijo svojim ideološkim smernicam. Hkrati se je treba zavedati visoke stopnje globalizacije, napredka in sprememb, ki ustvarjajo razlike in krojijo nova pravila, stara pa dokaj pogosto utemeljijo kot zastarela.

En el Mercosur, la libre circulación de personas se expresó como fin en el Tratado de Asunción de 1991. Para alcanzarlo, se generaron diversas instancias institucionales que dieron lugar a acuerdos de importante consideración. En ellos se evidencian avances y retrocesos, explicados desde distintas perspectivas. Sin embargo, ninguna de estas explicaciones tiene en cuenta la influencia clave de los contextos globales y regionales en su desarrollo. La regionalización e internacionalización de las políticas migratorias multiplicó la cantidad de actores e intereses participantes en los procesos de elaboración de las mismas, complejizándolos. Por lo tanto, para poder comprender el grado de avance de estas políticas se requiere un análisis multinivel que incluya la participación de estos actores y la influencia de los contextos nacionales, regionales e internacionales. Este trabajo estudia los factores políticos y normativos, nacionales regionales y globales, que pueden influenciar los movimientos poblacionales internacionales. Su objetivo es analizar la formulación, desarrollo y alcance de las políticas referentes a la movilidad regional de las personas en y del bloque adoptadas en el Mercosur; así como los factores que explican dicho desarrollo durante el período 1991-2012. Para esto, se indaga sobre los intereses, ideas y poder relativo de los actores participantes en la formulación de las normas (o sus propuestas) y el modelo al que responde el proceso de integración. Así, se estudia el contenido del proceso de coordinación de políticas regionales para la movilidad de las personas. Para ello, esta investigación realiza: en primer lugar, una descripción de las características particulares de las políticas que regulan la movilidad de las personas en el Mercosur y de su proceso de formulación en el período 1991-2012. Luego, una indagación sobre el modo en que han impactado las medidas adoptadas en el bloque en la circulación de las personas en dicho espacio. También, una vinculación de las formas y el contenido de estas políticas con a) las normas y los actores nacionales (nivel doméstico) b) el proceso de toma de decisiones en el Mercosur y el modelo de integración (nivel regional) y c) las tendencias en pos de la internacionalización y regionalización de las políticas para la movilidad de las personas (nivel internacional). Finalmente, una identificación, análisis e incidencia del rol desempeñado por los actores gubernamentales y no gubernamentales involucrados en la formulación de las políticas. Este trabajo destaca que las decisiones en las áreas de integración regional y migratoria son el resultado de una compleja interacción entre actores que detentan diversos intereses y recursos; y contextos y tendencias político-ideológicas. Esta interacción se da en tres niveles: internacional, regional y nacional. Como resultado, las políticas regionales en materia migratoria están fragmentadas en una serie de normas que tienden a regular cuestiones "técnicas". El fin de esto es resguardar la soberanía estatal, siendo una de las áreas en la que se evidencia una mayor reticencia a la adopción de normas comunes. In Mercosur, the free movement of persons was stated as an objective of the Asunción Treaty, in 1991. In order to achieve this objective, the Regional Integration Process created institutions that led to important agreements. These agreements achieved progress on certain fronts and also suffered setbacks. However, these outcomes do not take the key influence of global and regional scenarios in the development of migratory policies into account. The regionalization and internationalization of migration policies multiplied the amount of actors and interests taking part in policymaking processes, therefore adding to the complexity. In order to understand the development of migratory policies, a multi-level analysis of these distinct actors from a national, regional and international perspective is necessary. This thesis studies the regional, national and global, political factors that can influence the international movement of people. Its objective is to analyze the formation, development and reach of the policies regarding the regional mobility of people within Mercosur, as well as the factors that explain this development during the period 1991-2012. To this end, we explore the interests, ideas and power of the actors that took part in the writing of the norms (or their proposals) and the model to which the integration process conforms. In this manner, we study the content of the coordination process for regional policies for the movement of people. To achieve this aim, this investigation creates: firstly, a description of the policies that regulate the movement of the people and their formulation in Mercosur during the period 1991-2012. Secondly, an inquiry regarding the impact of the movement of people within the bloc. Also, a link to the forms and content of these policies with a) the norms and national actors (domestic level) b) the decision making process in Mercosur and the integration model (regional level) and c) the tendencies towards the internationalization and regionalization of the polices for the movement of people (international level). Lastly, an identification, analysis and advocacy of the role played by governmental and non-governmental actors involved in the formulation of these policies. This document emphasizes the view that the decisions in the areas of regional integration and migration are the result of a complex interaction amongst actor that hold diverse interests and resources; and among differing political-ideological contexts and tendencies. This interaction takes place at three levels: international, regional and national. As a result, the regional policies regarding migration are fragmented into a series of norms that tend to regulate "technical" matters. The purpose of these is to safeguard the sovereignty of the state, because this is an area of great reluctance towards the adoption of common standards.

En el Mercosur, la libre circulación de personas se expresó como fin en el Tratado de Asunción de 1991. Para alcanzarlo, se generaron diversas instancias institucionales que dieron lugar a acuerdos de importante consideración. En ellos se evidencian avances y retrocesos, explicados desde distintas perspectivas. Sin embargo, ninguna de estas explicaciones tiene en cuenta la influencia clave de los contextos globales y regionales en su desarrollo. La regionalización e internacionalización de las políticas migratorias multiplicó la cantidad de actores e intereses participantes en los procesos de elaboración de las mismas, complejizándolos. Por lo tanto, para poder comprender el grado de avance de estas políticas se requiere un análisis multinivel que incluya la participación de estos actores y la influencia de los contextos nacionales, regionales e internacionales. Este trabajo estudia los factores políticos y normativos, nacionales regionales y globales, que pueden influenciar los movimientos poblacionales internacionales. Su objetivo es analizar la formulación, desarrollo y alcance de las políticas referentes a la movilidad regional de las personas en y del bloque adoptadas en el Mercosur; así como los factores que explican dicho desarrollo durante el período 1991-2012. Para esto, se indaga sobre los intereses, ideas y poder relativo de los actores participantes en la formulación de las normas (o sus propuestas) y el modelo al que responde el proceso de integración. Así, se estudia el contenido del proceso de coordinación de políticas regionales para la movilidad de las personas. Para ello, esta investigación realiza: en primer lugar, una descripción de las características particulares de las políticas que regulan la movilidad de las personas en el Mercosur y de su proceso de formulación en el período 1991-2012. Luego, una indagación sobre el modo en que han impactado las medidas adoptadas en el bloque en la circulación de las personas en dicho espacio. También, una vinculación de las formas y el contenido de estas políticas con a) las normas y los actores nacionales (nivel doméstico) b) el proceso de toma de decisiones en el Mercosur y el modelo de integración (nivel regional) y c) las tendencias en pos de la internacionalización y regionalización de las políticas para la movilidad de las personas (nivel internacional). Finalmente, una identificación, análisis e incidencia del rol desempeñado por los actores gubernamentales y no gubernamentales involucrados en la formulación de las políticas. Este trabajo destaca que las decisiones en las áreas de integración regional y migratoria son el resultado de una compleja interacción entre actores que detentan diversos intereses y recursos; y contextos y tendencias político-ideológicas. Esta interacción se da en tres niveles: internacional, regional y nacional. Como resultado, las políticas regionales en materia migratoria están fragmentadas en una serie de normas que tienden a regular cuestiones "técnicas". El fin de esto es resguardar la soberanía estatal, siendo una de las áreas en la que se evidencia una mayor reticencia a la adopción de normas comunes. In Mercosur, the free movement of persons was stated as an objective of the Asunción Treaty, in 1991. In order to achieve this objective, the Regional Integration Process created institutions that led to important agreements. These agreements achieved progress on certain fronts and also suffered setbacks. However, these outcomes do not take the key influence of global and regional scenarios in the development of migratory policies into account. The regionalization and internationalization of migration policies multiplied the amount of actors and interests taking part in policymaking processes, therefore adding to the complexity. In order to understand the development of migratory policies, a multi-level analysis of these distinct actors from a national, regional and international perspective is necessary. This thesis studies the regional, national and global, political factors that can influence the international movement of people. Its objective is to analyze the formation, development and reach of the policies regarding the regional mobility of people within Mercosur, as well as the factors that explain this development during the period 1991-2012. To this end, we explore the interests, ideas and power of the actors that took part in the writing of the norms (or their proposals) and the model to which the integration process conforms. In this manner, we study the content of the coordination process for regional policies for the movement of people. To achieve this aim, this investigation creates: firstly, a description of the policies that regulate the movement of the people and their formulation in Mercosur during the period 1991-2012. Secondly, an inquiry regarding the impact of the movement of people within the bloc. Also, a link to the forms and content of these policies with a) the norms and national actors (domestic level) b) the decision making process in Mercosur and the integration model (regional level) and c) the tendencies towards the internationalization and regionalization of the polices for the movement of people (international level). Lastly, an identification, analysis and advocacy of the role played by governmental and non-governmental actors involved in the formulation of these policies. This document emphasizes the view that the decisions in the areas of regional integration and migration are the result of a complex interaction amongst actor that hold diverse interests and resources; and among differing political-ideological contexts and tendencies. This interaction takes place at three levels: international, regional and national. As a result, the regional policies regarding migration are fragmented into a series of norms that tend to regulate "technical" matters. The purpose of these is to safeguard the sovereignty of the state, because this is an area of great reluctance towards the adoption of common standards.

The purpose of the article to follow the historic stages of the rapprochement between Chinese-east and uropean-west music area in last century, till the diffusion of the cultural stimulus in creative activity Tan Dun and other epresentatives of the Orient in European cultural space.The declared subject is determined by sum of the postavant-garde cultural wave of modernity where the ntegrative factors "Orient-West" occupy the significant place. In music world Tan Dun, chinese gеnius in european cоmpоser system of self-expression symbolizes deep diffusion of corresponding to cultural quality.The value of the chinese influence on French was displayed by C. Debussi. R. Retie states that C. Debussi's harmonic harmony is illusory, but the reality of the harmony constructions emerges mеlоdious tonality, linked his style with the Orient. Debussi, with delight said about to "rococo" painting, and used it in his composition "Chinese rоndеl" one of that this sort gallant (in initial meaning – kind, exquisite polite and good-hearted) art. This approach in analysis of the semantic esthetics become clear when "ethnological fine", which easy to reach by dint of quotation half tone melody, obvious and comprehensible all sign of the Orient. The composer didn't use this instance.M. Voloshin in his essay put the "exotic" of romantic of the romantics an against the symbolists. It is well known that in Russian music culture the ideas of symbolism art original were refracted in creative activity of the national Russian music leader of the modernist style A.Skrjabin and S. Rachmaninov.Beside A. Skrjabin's aesthetic principles of symbolism and style particularities sounded diversionary and declarative, pointing on the theosophical installation and on indian sources, Buddististical forming and its connection with Chinese religious world. In S. Rachmaninov's compositions that symbolism style factors are given in the complex joining of artistic inclines. In A. Skrjabin melodies the ideas of the cosmic gigantism found specific russian mаximalism in faithfulness of the Ideal Rachmaninov intended to national folklore tradition. At same time in Rachmaninov's compositions we can see the obvious installation on symbolism and estheticism in vocal lyric poet. The Role of the russian music in shaping the modernist style as a whole global has defined G. Eimert, which pointed out the russian root of the world avent-garde, generalised position chapters Köhln schools of K. Stockhausen comparatively the one of the Skrjabin base searching for "world theatre" in avаnt-garde tendencies in the second part of the XX century.The transformation from symbolism-expressionism modernism of A. Skrjabin to "new business ability" type "Gebrauchtmusik" german school 1920 years became the expressionism-primitiveness manifestations of the type "Miraculous tangerine" of B. Bartók (1919). This composition is exceedingly original, has carried out "chinese stamp" in european music. It was an pеntаtоnic of the Tangerine as semantic join her with pеntаtоnic style oldeuropean mеlоdiсs, in Hungarian variant united with Asiatic origins, which have been given the European nation.The theatre of B. Brecht is determined in adjectives such as "epic" theatre, its epic principle has generated his deep knowledge of music. The music part of such show is subordinated by popular-cultural type of the expression, where the structure of songs-hits includes the scenic actions in timeless. In this context music of Brecht's performances can be compared with the cian of Chinese opera moreover, in variant ciuj-pe, "provincialism", which nature forms their deep value.But the main expressive acceptance, which has invented the theatre of Brecht and Peking opera was the agitation-sharp manner of scansion in pronouncing of the text. It is enough to match the fragments an readings from Czincziuj's shows with alive authentic record (not all theatres capable to do it, but only Moscow Theatre level on Taganka with participation V. Vysockij 1970 years!) of the shows Brecht to make sure these phenomena in deep sense resemblance.The one line of the Czincziuj's influences is a ballet of R. Glier "Red flower". It is well known that this show got significant success in 1927 in Soviet Russia (Moscow, Big theatre), but then it was subsequently postponed on the secondary scenes of the country. Glier's ballet did not take categorically the individual psychology traditional music thinking, in revenge after "new youth" blast 1920 years. His ballet consisted of duet of Soviet Captain and Tai Hoa, dancers, the main to heroines on motive of the Internationale such as joining of ideological music sign and intimaty of larval relations did not comply with the classics of the ballet european theatre by the most categorical image.The new stage is an interaction with Chinese theatre, where the culture of the ballet naturally has grown up from dance-acrobatic "military" shows of Beijing operas Jingju. The Opera of J. Adams "Nixon in China" has opened the way of Chinese art in the popular cultural area and became the triumph in 2000 years of the production kuncuy in USA then the process was marked amicable agreement popularity Tan Dun as the genius of American music and the megaphone of Chinese cultural music in system of European music. ; В статье автор прослеживает исторические этапы сближения китайского (восточного) и европейского (западного) музыкальных ареалов на протяжении ХХ столетия, вплоть до диффузии культурных стимулов в творчестве Тан Дуна и других представителей Востока в европейском культурном пространстве. Это определено итоговостью поставангардной культурной волны современности, в которой интегративные показатели "Восток-Запад" занимают значительное место. ; У статті автор прослідковує історичні етапи зближення китайського (східного) і європейського (західного)музичних ареалів протягом ХХ століття, аж до дифузії культурних стимулів у творчості Тан Дуна та інших представників Сходу в європейському культурному просторі. Це визначено підсумковістю поставангардної культурноїх вилі сучасності, в якій інтегративні показники "Схід-Захід" займають значне місце.

NATO likes to present itself as "the most successful alliance in history," not because it was successful in war, but because it prevented war, and also simply because it has lasted far longer than most alliances.What this propaganda narrative, however, obscures is that NATO during the Cold War avoided actual war not just by deterring the Soviet Union, but by eschewing actions of its own that would have led to war. The only ground war in which NATO has ever been involved, in Afghanistan, ended in disastrous failure. The U.S. military's view of its European allies in Afghanistan, and indeed, a central feature of NATO itself, was pithily summed up for me by a U.S. officer in Kabul: "They pretend to fight, and we pretend to listen to them."During the 75 years of NATO's existence, there really have been three NATOs: two with the mission of containing Russia, separated by one which thrashed around wildly and disastrously in search of a new mission. NATO I achieved a complete but peaceful victory when the Soviet bloc collapsed from within — though this came as a result above all of Communism's own failed promise. NATO II threw away the fruits of this victory through a disastrous kind of frivolous megalomaniac dilettantism. It thereby helped to usher in NATO III, whose eventual fate remains uncertain.Key to understanding the role and the success of NATO I (1949-1989) is that it operated only in Europe, and in accordance with George Kennan's original conception of containment. That is to say, it set out to prevent further Soviet military expansion in Europe, and to provide a military shield behind which western European countries could develop as successful economic and political systems. Their success in this regard, compared to the manifest failure of Soviet Communism, eventually brought about the Soviet bloc's collapse from within, just as Kennan had foretold. NATO thereby also helped the U.S. to retain access to European markets, hegemony over the eastern littoral of the Atlantic Ocean, and ideological and cultural prestige as the leader of the "Free World." When NATO was formed, and for many years thereafter, several of its European members were engaged in ferocious wars in Asia and Africa in an attempt to retain some portion of their colonial empires. NATO, however, was not involved in these wars, nor in the U.S. war in Indochina and other Washington-backed anti-communist operations around the world. Above all, NATO I and (after a brief wobble) the U.S. itself, eschewed ideas of "rollback," the attempt to drive the Soviet Union out of eastern Europe through the fomentation of revolutions backed by NATO military force. Three moments were critical in this regard: the disastrous failure of the American and British attempt to overthrow the Communist government of Albania through a royalist rebellion assisted by U.S. and British special forces officers (Operations "Fiend" and "Valuable," 1946-49, which cost around 300 American and British agents their lives).The second was Stalin's withdrawal of support for the Communist side in the Greek Civil War, and third, President Eisenhower's decision (ratified by the Solarium Exercise in 1953) to oppose rollback in Europe and stick to containment. The Soviet Union too, though it suppressed anti-Soviet revolutions in eastern Europe, and backed anti-Western revolutions elsewhere in the world, was careful not to initiate or provoke military conflict in Europe itself. Behind this mutual caution lay the mutual recognition that their positions in Europe (unlike in Africa or Asia) involved the vital interests of both sides, and that if these were seriously threatened this would mean war, most probably escalating to nuclear war and mutual annihilation.With the end of the Cold War, this NATO prudence evaporated. The Soviet collapse was seen as the unconditional triumph of the West. The resulting "End of History" mentality led to strategic and ideological hubris, which then combined to disastrous effect with other factors. Among these, the newly independent east European states (and their lobbies in the U.S.), obsessed with fear of Russia, clamored for membership.Somewhat paradoxically, this took place at a time when Russia was so weak that Moscow's concerns and reactions were treated as unimportant. In 1995, a senior German diplomat in Moscow told me that Russian fears were irrational, "because NATO is not what it was during the Cold War. It has changed." I asked him what it had changed into. "We are still deciding that," he replied. When made to Russians, such statements began the process of alienation that culminated in the Ukraine War.The NATO organization itself of course, like any great bureaucratic institution, was obsessed above all with finding reasons for its own survival on which so many military, bureaucratic and academic jobs in Europe depended. The almost unanimous opposition to NATO expansion among serious Russia experts (including Kennan himself) was simply brushed aside. Many, when they saw the struggle as hopeless, became silent or went over to support.As Russians warned, the expansion of NATO (and the EU) to eastern Europe brought into the alliance nations with a deeply ingrained fear and hatred of Russia. These Russian warnings were dismissed with the argument that once their security was guaranteed by NATO membership, this fear and hostility would disappear. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead, these sentiments fused with NATO's built-in structural hostility to Russia inherited from the Cold War.Some effort was made to convince Moscow that NATO expansion would be combined with cooperation with Russia, above all through the creation of the NATO-Russia Council. In practice, however, this institution proved almost completely meaningless, for all the NATO members formed a bloc under U.S. guidance, and instead of negotiating, simply overruled Russia whenever there was a point of disagreement. With the solitary exception of the invasion of Iraq — which Germany, France and most other NATO members opposed — NATO countries refused publicly to align with Moscow against Washington even on issues where they were in fact in deep disagreement with Washington policy. The George W. Bush administration's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002 was one example. The promise of NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008 was another, far more disastrous case where West European opposition bowed (albeit in qualified fashion) to U.S. dictation. It brought NATO into direct confrontation with Russia's determination to maintain a sphere of influence and security zone in its immediate neighborhood, in areas where the Soviet collapse (as with the end of most empires) had left behind actual or potential ethnic and territorial conflicts.And yet at the same time, NATO nor its individual members, had a plan or actual desire to fight Russia. Repeated warnings that NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia would mean war were literally laughed away by Western diplomats. As a former officer attached to the NATO Secretariat told me, the Secretariat did not even discuss contingency plans for a war between Georgia and Russia after — on U.S. orders — it threw its weight behind NATO membership for that country.As he explained, NATO expansion had been sold to Western parliaments and publics on the premise that it would involve no costs and no risks. Even to discuss the possibility of war was therefore taboo. As a result, NATO's European members acquiesced in a program of expansion that they had been warned repeatedly would lead to war, while making no preparation for war, and continuing to rely for energy on imports of cheap Russian gas.NATO III now finds itself in something that it, and its American hegemon, were careful to avoid during the first Cold War: a proxy conflict with Russia not in Asia or Africa, but in Europe itself, and in circumstances that in the long run strongly favor Russia.The resulting (largely imaginary) perception of a Russian threat to western and central Europe has in turn led to even deeper European dependence on the U.S., leading to growing alignment against China, and acquiescence in Israel's U.S.-enabled crimes in Gaza. The threat of climate change, which is already having a savage effect on NATO's southern European members and has been described by the alliance as "existential," has virtually disappeared from NATO's real agenda. And while during the first Cold War, the vast superiority of the West's social, political, and economic systems became completely obvious, today these are all deeply troubled by internal factors exacerbated by migration and neo-liberal economic policies. Assuming that we have any descendants, they are likely to view us as we do the European elites before 1914: trapped by their inherited culture and institutions, they pursued policies that seemed rational to them, but in retrospect look completely insane.

Introduction. For over two decades, Russian education has been in a state of permanent reform. Due to the long and unproductive nature of the modernisation process, researchers are paying special attention to systemic factors, noting that system optimisation processes are structured primarily around organisational and technological models derived from industry. The prevalence of the technological component over the axiological results in the consolidation of a pragmatic, narrowly functional, technocratic vector of education development. To overcome this situation and to break this deadlock, a profound reconsideration of the values underlying mechanisms of reform is required, taking into account multifaceted personal, social, national and universal relations, as well as unity of content, forms and means of education. The aims of the research were identified as follows: to analyse the current trends of modernisation in comprehensive schools and higher educational establishments; to justify humanistic mechanisms for improving the modernisation in the context of language education, which performs personally developing and socialising functions under ideological pluralism and opposition of value systems. Methodology and research methods. The research was conducted taking a person-activity-based approach, referring to cultural-historical concepts, ideas of philosophical hermeneutics and traditional principles of pedagogical methodology. The theoretical framework was based on the publications and philosophical foundations of Russian and foreign scholars, who define the key role of humanistic principles and value orientations in education. The following standard research methods were used: comparison, induction, deduction, abstraction, synthesis, specification, structural and logical modelling, content analysis of documents and scientific publications on the stated problem, observation, questioning, peer review and experiment. In addition, non-standard methods and research techniques such as metaphorical modelling, biographical method and interpretational techniques were used. Results and scientific novelty. Modernisation processes in Russian education were considered: regulatory base, purposes, priorities, problems and prospects. The following thesis was proposed: at the new stage of socio-historical transformation, it is necessary to overcome the negative effects of long-term practice in the reform of the national educational system through developing established traditions as well as updating the humanistic potential of education and ensuring its axiological enrichment. The authors consider pedagogical hermeneutics as a potentially productive means and methodological tool. Pedagogical hermeneutics implies a heuristic and poly-variable apperception of reality through education in order to understand and interpret different genres of cultural texts, providing simultaneous support both to the general public and to the individual, on the basis of rational and emotionally intelligent experience accumulated in science, religion, art, language and national traditions – i.e. culture as a whole. It was shown that language education based on principles of pedagogical hermeneutics is capable of establishing humanistic mechanisms of personactivity-based social norms and cultural models. The authors presented a number of modelling options for the realisation of the proposed hermeneutical approach: various experimentally-validated techniques, educational approaches and procedures designed by teacher-researchers were briefly described, focusing on the achievement of qualitative conformance of educational results to the humanistic appeals and urgent needs of society.Practical significance. The use of hermeneutical techniques as educational tools and procedures allows us to decode semiotic information of curricula subjects; in addition, when using meta-language, it is possible to expand the content by adding personal value-sense and dialogical subjectivity, as well as to transform it into a personal sign-symbol or behavioural template. The acquisition of language experience in the process of humanistic-centred education increases the immunity of a student to various manifestations of character defectivity, strengthening identity and resistance to manipulation of consciousness in political and ideological processes and mass media. Moreover, language experience resists the deformation of the communicative sphere and verbal-cognitive processes, encouraging personal self-realisation. ; Введение. Российское образование уже два десятилетия находится в состоянии перманентного реформирования. В комплексе причин затяжной и малопродуктивной модернизации авторы особое внимание уделяют системообразующим факторам, утверждая, что в настоящее время процессы оптимизации системы ориентированы преимущественно на организационно-технологические модели, скопированные из сферы производства. Преобладание технологической составляющей над ценностно-смысловой оборачивается упрочением прагматичного, узкофункционального, технократического вектора развития образования. Чтобы переломить ситуацию и изменить этот тупиковый для социума вектор, требуется глубинное аксиологическое переосмысление механизмов реформирования, которое должно проводиться с учетом всесторонних связей личности и общества, национального и общечеловеческого опыта, единства содержания, форм и средств обучения и воспитания. Цели изложенного в публикации исследования – обсуждение современных тенденций модернизации общеобразовательной и высшей школы; обоснование гуманитарных механизмов совершенствования образовательных процессов в контексте языкового образования, которое в условиях идейного плюрализма и противостояния ценностных систем выполняет личностноразвивающие и социализирующие функции. Методология и методы. Работа проводилась с опорой на взаимодополняющие друг друга деятельностно-личностный подход, положения культурноисторической концепции, идеи философской герменевтики и традиционные принципы методологии педагогики. Теоретической базой исследования являлись научные труды отечественных и зарубежных ученых, в том числе философские изыскания, в которых показана ключевая роль в образовании гуманитарных начал и ценностных ориентаций. Использовались классические исследовательские методы – сравнение, индукция, дедукция, абстрагирование, обобщение, конкретизация, структурно-логическое моделирование, а также контент-анализ документов и научных публикаций, наблюдение, анкетирование, экспертная оценка и опытная работа. Из инструментального арсенала неклассических методов и приемов исследования применялись метафорическое моделирование, биографический метод, интерпретационные техники. Результаты и научная новизна. Рассмотрены модернизационные процессы в российском образовании: нормативная база, цели, приоритеты, проблемы и перспективы. Выдвинут тезис о том, что на новом витке социально-исторических трансформаций необходимо преодоление отрицательных эффектов многолетней практики реформирования национальной образовательной системы посредством развития сложившихся в ней традиций, актуализации гуманитарного потенциала обучения и воспитания, его ценностно-смыслового обогащения. В качестве возможного продуктивного средства и методологического инструментария предлагается педагогическая герменевтика, подразумевающая эвристическое и поливариативное познание действительности через обучение пониманию и интерпретации разножанровых культурных текстов с одновременной опорой на общественный и индивидуальный, рациональный и эмоционально-чувственный опыт, накопленный в науке, религии, искусстве, языке, народных традициях – культуре в целом. Доказывается, что языковое образование, базирующееся на принципах педагогической герменевтики, способно запустить гуманитарные механизмы личностно-деятельностного освоения социальных норм и культурных образцов. Представлены некоторые варианты авторских моделей реализации герменевтического подхода: кратко описаны сконструированные педагогами-исследователями разнообразные, прошедшие опытно-экспериментальную апробацию методики, технологии и процедуры обучения и воспитания, ориентированные на достижение соответствия качества образовательных результатов гуманитарным запросам и насущным потребностям социума. Практическая значимость. Использование герменевтических технологий как процессуально-инструментальной основы образования позволяет декодировать знаково-семиотическую информацию учебных предметов, наполнять ее, используя метаязык, личностным ценностным смыслом и диалогической субъектностью и трансформировать в личностный знаково-символический или поведенческий текст. Приобретение языкового опыта в процессе гуманитарно ориентированного образования повышает иммунитет обучающегося к разнообразным проявлениям обезличенности, нивелирования индивидуальности и манипулирования сознанием – в частности, в политических и идеологических процессах, массовых формах коммуникации, в том числе сетевых, препятствует деформации коммуникативной сферы и речемыслительных процессов и позволяет достичь личностной самореализации. ; Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project № 18–013–00268 A) ; Российский фонд фундаментальных исследований (проект № 18–013–00268 А)

Introduction. For over two decades, Russian education has been in a state of permanent reform. Due to the long and unproductive nature of the modernisation process, researchers are paying special attention to systemic factors, noting that system optimisation processes are structured primarily around organisational and technological models derived from industry. The prevalence of the technological component over the axiological results in the consolidation of a pragmatic, narrowly functional, technocratic vector of education development. To overcome this situation and to break this deadlock, a profound reconsideration of the values underlying mechanisms of reform is required, taking into account multifaceted personal, social, national and universal relations, as well as unity of content, forms and means of education.The aims of the research were identified as follows: to analyse the current trends of modernisation in comprehensive schools and higher educational establishments; to justify humanistic mechanisms for improving the modernisation in the context of language education, which performs personally developing and socialising functions under ideological pluralism and opposition of value systems.Methodology and research methods. The research was conducted taking a person-activity-based approach, referring to cultural-historical concepts, ideas of philosophical hermeneutics and traditional principles of pedagogical methodology. The theoretical framework was based on the publications and philosophical foundations of Russian and foreign scholars, who define the key role of humanistic principles and value orientations in education. The following standard research methods were used: comparison, induction, deduction, abstraction, synthesis, specification, structural and logical modelling, content analysis of documents and scientific publications on the stated problem, observation, questioning, peer review and experiment. In addition, non-standard methods and research techniques such as metaphorical modelling, biographical method and interpretational techniques were used.Results and scientific novelty. Modernisation processes in Russian education were considered: regulatory base, purposes, priorities, problems and prospects. The following thesis was proposed: at the new stage of socio-historical transformation, it is necessary to overcome the negative effects of long-term practice in the reform of the national educational system through developing established traditions as well as updating the humanistic potential of education and ensuring its axiological enrichment. The authors consider pedagogical hermeneutics as a potentially productive means and methodological tool. Pedagogical hermeneutics implies a heuristic and poly-variable apperception of reality through education in order to understand and interpret different genres of cultural texts, providing simultaneous support both to the general public and to the individual, on the basis of rational and emotionally intelligent experience accumulated in science, religion, art, language and national traditions – i.e. culture as a whole. It was shown that language education based on principles of pedagogical hermeneutics is capable of establishing humanistic mechanisms of personactivity-based social norms and cultural models. The authors presented a number of modelling options for the realisation of the proposed hermeneutical approach: various experimentally-validated techniques, educational approaches and procedures designed by teacher-researchers were briefly described, focusing on the achievement of qualitative conformance of educational results to the humanistic appeals and urgent needs of society.Practical significance. The use of hermeneutical techniques as educational tools and procedures allows us to decode semiotic information of curricula subjects; in addition, when using meta-language, it is possible to expand the content by adding personal value-sense and dialogical subjectivity, as well as to transform it into a personal sign-symbol or behavioural template. The acquisition of language experience in the process of humanistic-centred education increases the immunity of a student to various manifestations of character defectivity, strengthening identity and resistance to manipulation of consciousness in political and ideological processes and mass media. Moreover, language experience resists the deformation of the communicative sphere and verbal-cognitive processes, encouraging personal self-realisation. ; Введение. Российское образование уже два десятилетия находится в состоянии перманентного реформирования. В комплексе причин затяжной и малопродуктивной модернизации авторы особое внимание уделяют системообразующим факторам, утверждая, что в настоящее время процессы оптимизации системы ориентированы преимущественно на организационно-технологические модели, скопированные из сферы производства. Преобладание технологической составляющей над ценностно-смысловой оборачивается упрочением прагматичного, узкофункционального, технократического вектора развития образования. Чтобы переломить ситуацию и изменить этот тупиковый для социума вектор, требуется глубинное аксиологическое переосмысление механизмов реформирования, которое должно проводиться с учетом всесторонних связей личности и общества, национального и общечеловеческого опыта, единства содержания, форм и средств обучения и воспитания.Цели изложенного в публикации исследования – обсуждение современных тенденций модернизации общеобразовательной и высшей школы; обоснование гуманитарных механизмов совершенствования образовательных процессов в контексте языкового образования, которое в условиях идейного плюрализма и противостояния ценностных систем выполняет личностноразвивающие и социализирующие функции.Методология и методы. Работа проводилась с опорой на взаимодополняющие друг друга деятельностно-личностный подход, положения культурноисторической концепции, идеи философской герменевтики и традиционные принципы методологии педагогики. Теоретической базой исследования являлись научные труды отечественных и зарубежных ученых, в том числе философские изыскания, в которых показана ключевая роль в образовании гуманитарных начал и ценностных ориентаций. Использовались классические исследовательские методы – сравнение, индукция, дедукция, абстрагирование, обобщение, конкретизация, структурно-логическое моделирование, а также контент-анализ документов и научных публикаций, наблюдение, анкетирование, экспертная оценка и опытная работа. Из инструментального арсенала неклассических методов и приемов исследования применялись метафорическое моделирование, биографический метод, интерпретационные техники.Результаты и научная новизна. Рассмотрены модернизационные процессы в российском образовании: нормативная база, цели, приоритеты, проблемы и перспективы. Выдвинут тезис о том, что на новом витке социально-исторических трансформаций необходимо преодоление отрицательных эффектов многолетней практики реформирования национальной образовательной системы посредством развития сложившихся в ней традиций, актуализации гуманитарного потенциала обучения и воспитания, его ценностно-смыслового обогащения. В качестве возможного продуктивного средства и методологического инструментария предлагается педагогическая герменевтика, подразумевающая эвристическое и поливариативное познание действительности через обучение пониманию и интерпретации разножанровых культурных текстов с одновременной опорой на общественный и индивидуальный, рациональный и эмоционально-чувственный опыт, накопленный в науке, религии, искусстве, языке, народных традициях – культуре в целом. Доказывается, что языковое образование, базирующееся на принципах педагогической герменевтики, способно запустить гуманитарные механизмы личностно-деятельностного освоения социальных норм и культурных образцов. Представлены некоторые варианты авторских моделей реализации герменевтического подхода: кратко описаны сконструированные педагогами-исследователями разнообразные, прошедшие опытно-экспериментальную апробацию методики, технологии и процедуры обучения и воспитания, ориентированные на достижение соответствия качества образовательных результатов гуманитарным запросам и насущным потребностям социума.Практическая значимость. Использование герменевтических технологий как процессуально-инструментальной основы образования позволяет декодировать знаково-семиотическую информацию учебных предметов, наполнять ее, используя метаязык, личностным ценностным смыслом и диалогической субъектностью и трансформировать в личностный знаково-символический или поведенческий текст. Приобретение языкового опыта в процессе гуманитарно ориентированного образования повышает иммунитет обучающегося к разнообразным проявлениям обезличенности, нивелирования индивидуальности и манипулирования сознанием – в частности, в политических и идеологических процессах, массовых формах коммуникации, в том числе сетевых, препятствует деформации коммуникативной сферы и речемыслительных процессов и позволяет достичь личностной самореализации.

The vast literature on European political parties is dominated by works focused on analyzing activities of the highest branches of state governments. Yet, it is difficult to be surprised by this state of affairs — in Europe, central authorities remain as the main political decision-makers, both in terms of internal affairs and foreign policies. However, it does not change the fact that political parties active in and submitting electoral candidates throughout any given country are not the only entities influencing the quality of political decisions made. It is particularly the case in federation countries and the so-called regional states, where regional parties, as well as their particular variety — ethno-regional parties — gain increasing political significance. The intensification of research on the position of regional parties in political systems of individual European states, especially on the subject of their presence in representative organs on four levels — European, state, regional, and local — is definitely justified. The first argument in favor of such research is the fact that in contemporary Europe, these groupings play a major role in establishing regional imagined communities. As a consequence, scientists must attempt to redefine the existing relations between the core and the periphery. The second argument is the fact that in Western European countries, the relevance level of regional parties is rather high, which indicates that the field of operations for such parties is still widening. Thirdly, regional parties are indeed a political occurrence characteristic for "old Europe" states, but they can also be found in Central and Eastern European countries. It means that conducting research on Western European regional parties conducted in Poland can be particularly significant. Poland is a rather unitary state and a change in the constitutional order, adopted in 1997, which establishes such a form of regime, is rather unlikely. It does not mean however, that the influence of Western European standards will not have an impact on political events in Poland and the shaping of the local political scene. An indepth analysis of solutions adopted in individual Western European states in terms of the capacity for representational participation of regional collectives in electoral representative organs on European, national, regional, and local levels can allow for drawing appropriate conclusions and a substantive evaluation of chances of and threats to democracy, which result from including political representatives of regional collective into lawmaking and — in a wider context — the workings of the political system. Fourthly, an analysis of the functioning of regional parties in the framework of European political systems can significantly contribute to the understanding of some factors conditioning the so-called "unfreezing process" of political systems. Finally, it should be noted that despite the existence of several classifications of political parties, the authors researching the matter today usually propose the adoption of a division into party "families", since the main "rivalry poles" are similar in most European states. The assumption of divisions based on doctrinal stereotypes is the reason many authors question the purposefulness of including regional and ethnic parties in classifications, which indicate the existence of ideological "families". It does not, however, change the fact that they comment on the matter of the existence of such groupings in their works, which is why we can assume that this is a consequential research issue. Contemporary Spain is undoubtedly one of the most interesting examples of a European state, where the political rivalry between the core and the periphery indicates the existence of a substantial sociopolitical division in this aspect. It is clear that any attempt to describe the functioning of its party system based solely on a classification formed using traditional doctrinal stereotypes must lead to an incomplete, heavily distorted image. The political processes in this country during the last 150 years show that the socio-political division between the core and the periphery is not any less vital in Spain than the divisions based on the attitudes towards economic and ideological issues. It is clear there that at the turn of the second decade of the 21st century, in the midst of a serious economic crisis, the disappointment in elite politics on the political core level resulted in the rise of popularity of regional parties. It should be noted here that the research on Spanish parties from this party "family" must be coupled with devoting particular attention to a subtype of groupings, which advocate ethnic values. This is due to the specificity of periphery regions, differing from other state areas in language, customs or tradition of political institutions, but also in using these differences in political play by ethno-regional parties. From the perspective of a highly centralized state such as Poland, it definitely merits to examine the case of Spain. The first argument in favor of researching this field is the fact that despite granting autonomic rights to all regions of Spain, the state still retains the form of a unitary state. This work is therefore an analysis of occurrences within the context of a similar form of state, as opposed to those happening in a federation — a form foreign to Polish tradition. Secondly, adding to Polish literature and therefore widening the knowledge of regional parties in Spain may be useful in future in the context of gradual maturing of Polish democracy on local and regional levels. The state decentralization, which occurred in Poland after 1989 was probably one of the most difficult political processes carried out in the country. It is suffice to note that in 1990, at the dawn of the Polish Third Republic, only one level of self-government — the municipal government — was established. Further solutions in the local government reform area were not implemented until 1998, when the government of Jerzy Buzek decided to create county and province levels. However, those solutions are becoming a frequent subject of political and scientific discussion. These discussions often include the notion that the local government reform is a process, which has not been finalized in Poland yet. It is worth noting here that the requests related to directions of changes in the field of Polish decentralization often come from local and regional entities. It can be therefore presumed that the process of development of sub-state political elites will result in subsequent requests in the future. This can further exacerbate the sociopolitical core-periphery division. Consequently, the main goal of this work is to verify the research hypothesis, which assumes that the significant sociopolitical core-periphery divisions in Spain must have prompted the political elites of the central level - which were active after the demise of general Franco and guided the democratic transformation process, setting the state's territorial integrity as a main goal — to employ solutions for the creation, activity and financing of political parties, as well as for electoral laws, which would allow for communities from individual historical regions to maintain a representation in representative organs on four levels — European, state, regional, and local — therefore ensuring their significant position in the political system of contemporary Spain.