Another successful year lies behind the Annals of the Croatian Political Science Association. Our “main product”, the nineteenth volume of the Annals, was officially released two weeks ago. With seven original scientific articles, one review article, one preliminary communication, two essays, six book reviews, two reactions, one editorial and one conference report (all together, 21 texts), this volume is somewhat more modest than the previous, eighteenth volume (with its total of 30 texts). Our goal was to compile a more concise and therefore more concentrated set of texts that presents the various results of scholarly work in political science and neighboring disciplines in 2022. We will be honest and admit that the key factor in the decision to reduce the volume was the adaptation to scientometric and ranking principles of large science databases – principles that require a series of compromises regarding editorial impulses. Aside from the usual objections that a “small” journal can have against such large systems that have no feeling for local particularities, I feel that this need to summarize, in the end, turned out to be a good incentive for us. With the lessons learned from our prior endeavor of publishing an issue of scientific journal, I believe that this editorial team did a better job this year that the last. At least one indicator that I can point out is the more advanced and up-to-date operation according to the principle of online first publishing – over three quarters of the content of this volume became available before its publication in the finished issue online and in print. So, from the service side, we have done better. We leave it to the scientific community to decide whether we have achieved the goal of greater concentration – a quantitatively smaller volume paired with a qualitatively stronger scientific contribution
However, I am not here to talk about our main product. Although the Annals of CPSA are the institutional basis of everything we do, we decided early on that we would also engage in publishing content that does not follow the strict rules of the institutionalized scientific form. This, of course, does not mean that it is any less scientific. It is content that would mostly fall under the category of “popularization of science”. In our case, this means that we engage political scientists and scientists of related disciplines of social sciences and humanities to express their insights in a shorter and more comprehensible form for a wider audience. Primarily there is our Blog, which since April of last year has been regularly publishing shorter texts on the topic of current political events or current research by our authors as well as other relevant topics. On the other hand, there is the Political Science Podcast, where, for about half an hour, political scientists talk about their research and experiences in scientific work and broader social engagement. Again, if we are honest, we encountered obstacles in producing such content, since in essence it is not institutionally valued and does not, at least in the Annals, bring any material gains to the authors (alas, we do not pay author fees for the Blog commentaries, even less for the Podcast interviews…). Nevertheless, we do believe that these more concise and comprehensible forms of scientific discourse greatly contribute to the influence not only of political science, but of social science in general. If we are convinced of the importance of our work not only as a narrow contribution to the discipline, but also as socially valuable insights, it goes without saying that we must try to present that work in a way that is accessible to everyone. This requires, in addition to blogs and podcasts, easily accessible distribution of content, which is what the website on which you are reading this text is for, as well as our activity on social networks Facebook and Twitter.
Without further ado, let’s start with a brief overview of the contents that the Annals of the CPSA page presented to you this year.
The first article on the Blog this year, titled "Machiavellianism in Kazakhstan: How to take an advantage of the protests against yourself?" was written by Davor Boban. Published in January, Boban ominously opened a subject that will soon become unreservedly the most topical, namely the fate of the post-Soviet space. Boban briefly describes the legacy, factors, and outcomes of the unrest in Kazakhstan in January of this year.
A little more than a week after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kristijan Kotarski writes the text "Can economic sanctions alter Putin's strategic calculus?". Kotarski evaluates in detail the situation of the political-economic duel between Russia on one side and the USA and the EU on the other in the early phase of the invasion of Ukraine. In a perspective almost a year after the start of the war, Kotarski’s analysis remains more than a mere guessing game. Moreover, it can serve the reader in the present for a reflection on many factors that are still relevant for the outcomes of the ongoing war.
We can now move away from the events of global importance (though not so geographically distant to us) to something geographically closer and locally more significant. Valentino Grbavac writes the text "’Why should I be a minority in your state when you can be a minority in mine?’ Territorial federalism as a solution to the problem of the constituency of peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina". We have already published articles on the subject of Bosnia and Herzegovina's politics in the previous volume, as well as texts on the Blog. Grbavac elaborately explains the problems of the political and electoral system of BiH, which remain relevant after the general elections in October this year.
In May, Višeslav Raos wrote the text "Emmanuel Macron in the dire straits of political life". Raos looks back at the April presidential elections in France, where Macron won a second term, but without the voter enthusiasm that ensured his first victory. With the reduced advantage in the share of votes against his rival Marine Le Pen, whom he also faced in the previous election, Macron's government starts from a shakier position this time, and Raos predicted difficulties for his coalition in the parliamentary elections in June. Meanwhile, Macron has indeed lost his majority in parliament, but has retained a minority government and, for now, is avoiding potential cohabitation.
Back to Russia, Davor Boban writes his second article this year – "The Kremlin troubles: How the application of hard power reduces Russian soft power in the post-Soviet space". The support that allied countries (with the exception of Belarus) provided to Russia in its war in Ukraine ultimately turned out to be lukewarm at best. Moreover, Kazakh President Tokayev, who was actively supported by Russia in suppressing the unrest at the beginning of the year, firmly opposed the recognition of the breakaway regions of Donbass. Boban explains that Russian influence over the countries of the post-Soviet space is based on the threat of using hard power. In such a relationship, based on fear, Boban believes that these countries do not have a feeling of loyalty towards Russia, and as such, they cannot be true allies, but only “occasional collaborators”.
In the next article, we moved away from the “classic” topics of geopolitics and electoral politics and moved towards something a bit unusual at least for Croatian political science, but which becomes increasingly relevant – the realm of Internet politics. Matej Mikašinović-Komšo writes the article "Myth as a means to construct a coherent identity on the 4chan forum", portraying the emerging political arenas with new forms of political subjectivity with high potential for mobilization. Although at first glance they seem marginal, the possibility of such digital groupings to influence the “real world” should not be overlooked. Mikašinović-Komšo has also further developed his scientific interest in the extreme right digital political communities by publishing a full scientific article pairing the analysis of 4chan discourse with the multiple streams framework in policy studies, as a part of a block of texts on public policy theories and their application.
The next set of texts brings something completely different. Karlo Garma, titled as an "unemployed political scientist from Brodarica" (a settlement near Šibenik), describes his experience of navigating the labor market where he does not find jobs in the profession, but mainly those for which his political science studies did not prepare him. The "Precarious political scientist" series comes in four instalments - in the first and second, Garma describes his experiences working on a ship, and in the third and fourth, his experience working in construction. Garma’s experience is certainly not so foreign to many young political scientists who are looking for employment after their studies, so on this occasion we repeat the invitation issued earlier - to all precarious political scientists and other social scientists with comparable experience, to contact us with their stories that they would like to share with the public.
Mirjana Kasapović’s text titled "”Annihilate those stink bugs!”" was published between the two instalments of "Precarious political scientist". In essence, the title is a more or less direct quote from Pravda, a Russian propaganda newspaper that invokes a whole bestiary in its aggressive and warmongering rhetoric directed at various European nations. At the time of the war in Ukraine, this kind of discourse is no longer marginal in Russia, and Kasapović, through a short history of genocidal rhetoric, comes to Dimitri Medvedev, the former Prime Minister and President of Russia and the current Vice President of the Security Council of Russia. Far from being a minor politician, Medvedev did not hesitate to further pour dehumanizing and genocidal discourse against not only Ukrainians, but also various other peoples.
Finally, Boris Havel brings us a brief overview of the political upheavals in Sweden after the last parliamentary elections. The Tidö agreement is a coalition framework through which four Swedish parties – the Moderates, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals, and the Sweden Democrats – attempt to assure the implementation of their preferred policies. In this issue of the Annals, you can also find Havel's article in which he writes in more detail about democracy in Sweden in historical perspective.
That is all regarding the Blog, and we can move on to the Podcast. The guest of the first episode, entitled "Populism, elites and masses", was Marko Grdešić. The topics of discussion were, among others, the relationship between the elite and the masses in populism as a fractal phenomenon, the Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution in Serbia and the rise of Milošević to power, the paradox of the strength of the right in economically neglected regions, and the problems of disciplinary fragmentation and lack of communication within the political science community.
In the second episode, titled "Pandemic and Crisis of Democracy", the guest was Nenad Zakošek. Zakošek talks about citizens' disillusionment and mistrust in institutions, which leads to a turn to authoritarian policies, and connects such a crisis of democracy with governance in the era of the pandemic, which exacerbated existing dilemmas and led to additional political polarization in societies.
In the third episode, titled "Populism, democracy and civic education", the guest was Berto Šalaj who talked about "celebrity populism", the capacity of populism to be a corrective to elitist democracy, and emphasized the importance of a democratic political culture that can be created and nurtured through civic education.
In the fourth episode, titled "Health policy and gender (in)equality", the guest was Dagmar Radin who talked about the position of women in the health system, how the Croatian health system coped with the pandemic, and the problem of creating usable social science knowledge for public policies.
In the fifth and so far the latest episode titled "What's wrong with Croatian public policies?", guest Ana Petek talks about the lack of precision in setting the goals of public policies in Croatia, which represents an obstacle to their successful implementation. Petek also spoke about the recognition of public policy experts in the international academic community, but also in the process of creating public policies in Croatia.
This concludes the overview of the activities of the Annals’ website in 2022. I would now like to, first of all, sincerely thank all the authors who contributed texts to our Blog. I hereby invite all other political scientists and other scientists working in social sciences and humanities to contact us if they are interested in publishing on our blog. We will be happy to publish all quality texts in both Croatian and English, providing translation which makes the texts accessible to a broader audience.
Secondly, I would like to thank Enes Kulenović, editor-in-chief of the Political Science Podcast. Without exaggeration, I can say that if it weren’t for his willingness to be both an editor, a technician, and a speaker, the podcast probably wouldn't even exist. Enes did a fine job. I would also like to thank Višeslav Raos, who participates in the creation of the Podcast and was the announcer in the fifth episode. I thank Radio Student for their collaboration and their broadcasting of the Podcast. Of course, I also thank everyone who was a guest in our Podcast. Again, I invite interested political scientists and others who want to talk about their research and experiences in scientific work to contact us. I will just mention that, in addition to the website of the Annals’, you can listen to the podcast on Spotify and Anchor.fm and on the YouTube channel of the CPSA.
Third, I would like to thank our two publishers, the Croatian Political Science Association and the Faculty of Political Science. In addition to providing support in publishing the journal itself, they have also supported our ambitious ideas for the website, Blog and Podcast.
Lastly, I would like to thank our webmaster Matej Radnić who keeps this page alive.
The Annals of the CPSA enter the year 2023 with the will to improve the quality of all our activities. Keep following us not only here, but also on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Stay tuned, we promise you more quality content.
I wish everyone happy holidays and a happy new year!
