ENERGY POLICY AND DIPLOMACY: TO THE 15<SUP>TH</SUP> ANNIVERSARY OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENERGY POLICY
HISTORY: THE 70<SUP>TH</SUP> ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WORLD WAR II
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
WORLD POLITICS
POLITICAL SCIENCE
The author makes an attempt to classify the political manifestations of social protest in postwar Japanese history. The author identifies five types of politically orchestrated social protest: ideological, socio-class, problem centered, conservative and local. The specificity of concrete forms of protest is analyzed from the points of view of their substance and organization. After the end of the cold war the ideological type of social protest which had earlier played the role of the ideological basis for the consolidation of the left opposition political forces, loses its initial driving force. The aggravating crisis of the traditional corporate model decreases the significance of the social-class protest which had been an instrument of pressure over state power in favor of an active policy in the social sphere/ Also diminishing in the present-day Japan is the conservative protest as a public dissent against the ruling party caused by weakening of its ability to take into acount the interests of specific social minorities that had traditionally been prioritized by state support. Meanwhile the problem-centered and local types of protest are gaining more importance in today’s Japan as they rely on a relatively broad social support. For the opposition parties social protest is nothing more than an opportunity to attract additional votes. Lacking any real chance of coming to power, these parties use mass protest mood for the consolidation of their electoral base. Many voters, disillusioned with the ability of political parties to extrapolate their opinion on the sphere of public policy decision-making, become more and more inclined not to come to the polls at all.
This article, perhaps for the first time in Russian scientific and historical literature raises the question of the nature and character of the social protest in the Arab Palestinian society. Even before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Arab population of Palestine entered an active stage of forming national consciousness and identity, which was parallel to the development of pan-Arab national liberation movement. Mass demonstrations of Palestinians in 1920, 1929 and 1936-1939 suggest that the main cause of the protest was the colonial policy of Great Britain, expressed in support the Zionist movement and, as a consequence – the impossibility for the leading Palestinian clans to realize their political ambitions. Taking into account the fact that the Palestinians have shown exceptional tenacity and will in the struggle for national independence, the international community has supported the UN decision to create on the territory of mandated Palestine two States – one Arab and one Jewish. However, due to the Arab-Israeli conflict and other well-known geopolitical reasons, the state of Palestine has not been created till now. Today the Palestinians are divided into four segments: refugees living outside of Palestine in other countries, the Arab population of Israel, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In this article the author analyses the situation of the Palestinians on the territory of the historical Palestine and typical forms of protest and discontent in the Palestinian community at present. The article argues that the protest in the Palestinian society, as in the past, has a distinct anti-Israel and anti-Zionist orientation.
Economic globalization creates unfavorable conditions for some countries and social groups while the situation in other countries and social is becoming worse. That is why social problems are on the rise worldwide. Thus, social protest became the major cause of the Arab spring is. Social wave overwhelmed Western Europe and the USA. The solution of social problems depends not on the political will of the elite, but on the activity of the population, as the ruling circles will not adopt a policy of self-restrictions and concessions to the majority without the hard push from the bottom. The peculiar feature of India is the general satisfaction of the society with the political system and economic situation. At the same time the protests against specific cases and events in the country mobilize hundreds of thousands of people, be it corruption scandals or violence against women. However, cultural- civilizational factors contribute to the non-violent character of almost all mass actions. Another distinctive feature of India is the desire of the organizers of the protest to reject support of the major parties due to the belief that political leaders are interested more in strengthening their social base rather than in solving the concrete problems. There are different categories of social protest in India: peasant movements; scheduled castes' (Dalits, the former untouchables) movements; anti-corruption movements; environmental movements; backward caste movements; women's movements; tribal movements; industrial proletariat movements; students' movements; middle class movements; human rights movements. The first four movements are currently the most noticeable. Social protest has not, so far, led to any serious political instability. However, a certain development of the situation can generate it, as well as the rejection of the mainly peaceful methods. In this respect, Dalit movements, especially in case of further erosion of the caste system, are the subject of the greatest concern.
Social protest in contemporary Indonesia is brought about by four important processes going on in the world lately namely modernization, globalization, westernization and democratization. These processes we can see in contemporary Indonesia gaining speed in the 21 century. There impact varies in different regions of the country, on various social groups of Indonesian population. As a consequence forms and modes of the social protest are different in diverse regions of the country and among various social and ethnic groups. Spontaneous social movements triggered by the drastic fall of the living condition of the wide masses of the country’s population are the most dangerous to the ruling elite. Certain steps of the local authorities which allow big business to exploit mineral and land resources and as a consequence deny local population of traditional sources of their livelihood derive strong protests and waves of mass demonstrations. Globalization which penetrates the country’s economy, political and social democratization and westernization provoke protest movements under Islamic banners and increase Islamic trends in Indonesian society. Nevertheless we may draw a conclusion that political risks following from social protest movements in contemporary Indonesia appeared to be minimal both to the ruling authorities and to the stability of the country’s political system.
The article deals with causes and distinctive features of social protest movements in Iran through the prism of the effect that historic and contemporary developments have on them. The author analyses the most important factors that influence social activity during periods of exacerbating internal tensions in Iran. Great importance is attached to the Shia clergy ́s role in leading protest movements in the country before the Islamic revolution. Besides, the author evaluates the capacity of the ruling clergy to halt protests and ensure the majority ́s loyalty to the governing regime. Considerable attention is paid to the characteristics of the so-called «green movement» in which during 2011–2012. Again loudly declared himself to speak in support of popular uprisings in several Arab countries during the «Arab Spring». Under the influence of these events in Iran have again begun a protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In this regard, the Iranian authorities placed under house arrest of several opposition leaders, including Mousavi. Since then, the situation in Iran in general has stabilized. Moreover, the leaders of the «green» M. Mousavi and M. Kyarubi made a number of harsh anti-Western statements, in which he accused the West of choosing «wrong way» to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue by introducing anti-Iranian sanctions. They are, from the point of view of the opposition leaders, especially not hit the economic interests of the Iranian government and the Iranian citizen. The election in November 2013 the new president of Iran representative of the liberal camp Hassan Rouhani also had a positive impact on the containment of the Iranian opposition street protests.
The article focuses on socio-political activism, main features of socio-political contradictions and the couses of the recent social protests in Thailand. Thailand has the longest democratic tradition among ther countries of South-east Asia. Yetbackin 1932 the country has changed the absoulute monarchy to a constitutional one. However in the XXth century Thailand had lived through more than five decades of authoritarianism. The number of military coupd'etats which took place in Thailand now equals to almost twenty. At the same time, despite such a long authoritarian rule the country witnessed the formation of various elements of civil society. In the second part of the XX century the student protests of 1973–1976 became the most vivid example of civic activism. The social protest in Thailand reached its most active phase in the first decade of this century when the country splitted into two camps – one of thes-o-called «Red Shirts» and Another One of the «Yellow Shirts». The «Red Shirts» supported billionere Thaksin Shinawatra, a Prime Minister of Thaialnd in 2001–2006. The «Yellow Shirts» opposed him. Thet women tioned camps created new social movements – «People's Alliance for Democracy» («Yellow Shirts») and «United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship» («Red Shirts»). Since 2006 Thailand has seen several stages of the development of the social protest. The most recent one starte din November 2013 and end edin May 2014 when after more than half a year of mass meetings in the country's capital Bangkok the military took power again.
The article analyzes current spiritual-political and socio-economic situation in postreform China with the emphasis on newest tendencies in the social feeling and conscience. Such a gigantic socio- cultural laboratory as China, with the processes of modernization and archaization proper to it, gives much material disproving conceptions of unilinear historical progress and brining to light the Chinese particularity. The content of China elite identity and the reasons of its stability and continuity are analyzed on the basis of a profound excursus into history of the evolution of the «Confucians way of governance», that quite differs from the European model. In consequence of thousands years of selective breeding through the examination system and the stratagem mentality there was created, in the author’s opinion, not the political culture, but some type of the specific Chinese administrative behavior mode, based on «the moral consensus» between different clans of elite, this time leaded by Xi Jinping, and composed by the «shanghai» and the «komsomol» factions. Contemporary partocracy regime of PRC inherited all the negative characteristics of soviet «nomenclature» such as hierarchy career based on loyalty, bureaucracy privileges, special rations and advantages, nepotism, corruption and so on, but has created specific Chinese system of «soft» succession of power from generation to generation. At the same time, the confluence of political and business elites is taking place and the state and society interests are more and more subordinated to their corporative Ames, that provoke so called «new leftist» movement against the irrational redistribution system. The CCP new leadership exploits the «Chinese dream» rhetoric and anticorruption assault to get the national consensus and conserve its monopoly on political power. However, the social-economic structures sophistication and the new social contradictions and conflicts intensification, the now days economic crisis evidences about, draw attention to the crucial importance of democratization and creation of the new nontraditional political system for up to date diagnosis, softening and salvation of such conflicts.
GLOBAL ECONOMY
The main task of this research is the analysis of the key imbalances in the Indian economy, as well as their reasons and consequences. The article highlights the main directions of the Indian government’s policy in the 1990–2000s aiming to overcome these imbalances. The author focuses on the imbalances in the financial, real and external economic sectors of the Indian economy and underlines features of using labour, financial, scientific and technical resources, which are necessary for its successful development. The article underlines contradictory conditions of the present economic development in India and coexistence of the capitalist and pre-capitalistic ways of production (the small-scale industry), including the cottage industries, in the Indian real sector. At the same time the contemporary economic policy of the Indian government doesn’t aim at the elimination of the pre-capitalistic way of production but at the large-scale business’ activity restrictions in the sphere of the small-scale industry. This policy aims at the creation of favorable economic conditions for the small-scale industry. The author notes the main problems of the social sector of the Indian economy and in the human resources development and points out in the sphere of education the unresolved problems connected with equality of educational opportunities and availability of secondary and higher education for the considerable strata of the Indian population and also with deterioration of academic standards etc. The article also presents statistical data on the present state of the Indian external debt, fiscal deficit, the foreign exchange reserves as well as the dynamics of the Indian external trade, foreign direct investments’ inflow and remittances of the Indian diasporas.
This article is devoted to the analysis of restructuring in the Russian production sector basing on the worldwide experience of innovative industrial policy with the focus on the role of the government in this process. While the author in the article identifies de- and re-industrialization trends, cluster systems organization as well as development of national innovation systems (NIS) as crucial processes in the global industry great attention is paid to the role of the state in these processes. International practice in developed countries shows that the state plays key role in industrialization process acting as a brainchild in setting target values for R&D industrial expansion implementing institutional, infrastructure, preferential as well as tax relief forms of support. Major advanced economies devote considerable attention to creation of supportive environment for industrial development, including implementation of national innovation systems (NIS) as well as elaboration of the institutional infrastructure industry development programs. Global market industrial trends analysis shows that production sector together with its innovative development will remain a major priority and a driving force in global economic growth. Taking into account present situation of the Russian economy which can be described as critical, time factor is considered to be of great importance, making it necessary to adopt accelerated development model in the Russian economy reforms. A key question to consider is what actions should be adopted by the government to ensure acceleration in economic development of the country.
Today Norway is a highly developed country with a predominantly service sector in the economic structure. However, oil continues to play a major role in the life of the state and society as one third of state revenues is based on oil resources, while export of raw materials totals more than a half of the country's overall export. However, it is not quite possible to cover the entire oil sector in Norway within the scope of one piece of work due to the differences in the characteristics of each of the three sources of the country's oil. In this context, the resources of the Norwegian and Barents Seas are associated with the problems of the Arctic and the Arctic law. At the same time, the North Sea is the most regulated area, besides it is the so called "homeland" of the oil production in Norway. Thus, this paper analyzes the role of the North Sea oil in the economy of Norway, which is the basis of its economic prosperity. Due to its oil revenues, Norway was once able to build a welfare state. Also the unique system of accumulation of oil revenues, which is reflected in the functioning of the Government Pension Fund of Norway, is a relevant issue as well. The article deals with the emergence of the oil industry in the country from a historical perspective, and analyzes its current state, including a detailed analysis of the existing fields and pipelines. Furthermore, the authors propose the estimation of state revenues from the oil production in the North Sea.
In this study the author reveals the essence of the financial crisis and examines the various types of financial crises. By studying the literature on financial crises, the author of the studypays attention to three specific areas: the definition of the crisis, the manifestations of the crisis and the types of financial crises. The article notes that the term "financial crisis" is widely used in a variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose most of their nominal value, but it does not necessarily lead to changes in the real economy. The financial crisis is a crisis that is systematically covers financial markets and institutions of the financial sector, international finance, money circulation and credit, state, municipal and corporate finance. Financial crises have common elements, but they come in different forms. Financial crises are generally multidimensional events and are difficult to characterize using a single indicator. The author considers the following types of financial crises: a banking crisis, a currency crisis, speculative bubbles and international financial crises. Banking crisis is a situation when a bank faces with a sudden outflow of depositors' funds. A currency crisis is a situation when the exchange rate, which is pegged to the currency of another country, is on the verge of collapse, causing committed speculation. A speculative bubble is in the case of large, sustainable overpricing of any asset class. Financial crises are reflected in a sharp rise in interest rates, a collapse in exchange rates, massive withdrawal of deposits from banks and credit crunch, currency and debt crisis.
With increasing role of transnational corporation (TNC) questions of corporate financial soundness analysis and prediction methods are gaining momentum. This article highlights the key aspects of financial soundness of corporations. The author compared the economic notion of financial soundness in theory and in practice. Also, specified the concept of financial soundness («stability», «sustainability», «solvency», «soundness», «financial distress) used in Russia and internationally. The existing academic approach in terms of financial soundness assessment is different from the view of international organizations and corporations. The article stated that Russian researches in general see financial soundness as a mix of liquidity and solvency whereas in practice the financial soundness is a more multivariate concept. International Monetary Fund, Ministry of Regional Development and Central Bank of Russia extend the concept of financial soundness adding the profitability and specific ration into the analysis. Foreign authors use different models of financial soundness ranging from statistical, mathematical to special ratings. In practice there is also no definitive understanding of financial soundness based on the analysis of financial information of Rosneft, Alrosa, and Tatneft.
Compared Russian and foreign academic approach, government and international instructions of IMF, Ministry of Regional Development and Central Bank of Russia and stated the main characteristics of financial soundness, an author gives its definition.
SCIENTIFIC LIFE
ISSN 2541-9099 (Online)