Unkonventionelle Partizipation in autoritären Regimen wird in der Regel als Bedrohung für das politische System und als Beitrag zu seiner Demokratisierung gesehen. Diese Sicht-weise vernachlässigt allerdings, dass Proteste nicht unbedingt gegen das System gerichtet sind und dass die...

In the course of globalization, the intensity of global interactions between nations, firms, and civil society actors has increased significantly and has led to the creation of transnational norm-building networks. These have an essential, but little-known influence on all aspects of life...

The article deals with the social mechanism that connects modernization with democratization. Starting from a differentiation theoretical point of view, the paper argues that the major impetus for democratization is rather given by “functional antagonisms” inside the social subsystems than...

Indian parties and the party system in India are only partly consolidated resp. institutionalised, according to the usual criteria, distilled from the experience of Western parties. This is so in spite of the long tradition of Indian parties, their large membership base, organisational...

Formal and informal politics from an institutional perspective: An analytical approach for comparative area studies Formal and informal politics as an object of social science analysis are connected in this paper with an institutional perspective. First, we survey the existing comparatively...

Much of recent international relations literature argues conflicts to achieve or to frustrate regional dominance will become more virulent in the future. In this context we examine different approaches in international relations theory regarding the role and importance which they attribute to...

<strong>The Rise of Regional Powers and Shifting Global Relations:Comparing China, India, Brazil and South Africa</strong>A number of regional powers are becoming important international actors and are changing the coordinates of world politics and the global economy. The political and economic shift in favor of...

Seit einiger Zeit stehen Regionen (wieder) auf der Agenda der Theoriediskussionen in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Es ist u.a. von einer „emerging regional architecture of world politics“ die Rede und von der Zukunft eines „multiregional system of international relations“ oder sogar...