Understanding drivers of illiberal entrenchment at critical junctures: institutional responses to COVID-19 in Hungary and Poland

The present article aims to improve understanding of institution formation in (former) liberal-democratic polities characterized by autocratization tendencies. We examine how the critical juncture created by the COVID-19 pandemic was used, as well as the interplay between antecedent, structural conditions and the particular combinations of political agency and contingency. By comparing the two similar cases of Hungary and Poland – the two European Union countries that have progressed the farthest towards illiberal transformation – and using documentary and interview evidence, we conclude that: (1) whereas Hungary exhibited significant institutional changes, Poland did not; (2) these differences in institutional outcomes can be significantly attributed to differences in certain critical antecedent conditions; and (3) the ability of key political actors – Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Jarosław Kaczyński – to control their own political camp seems to have exerted an unmistakable effect as well. Points for practitioners The build-up and entrenchment of institutions of illiberal rule in (previously) liberal-democratic contexts are encumbered by diverse political and institutional constraints. External shocks, such as the COVID-19 crisis, may offer an opportunity to bypass those constraints and to change institutions permanently. Our study concludes that the extent to which such historical windows of opportunity can indeed be used to achieve lasting institutional changes depends not only on the objective, historically given political and institutional constraints that illiberal reforms face, but also on their subjective ability to act in a controlled, coordinated and coherent manner.

History and present time of the L.P. Symyrenko Research Station of Pomology of the Institute of Horticulture, NAAS of Ukraine

The paper is devoted to the centenary of the L.P. Symyrenko Research Station of Pomology foundation. The authors have depicted the main stages of the institution formation and development and elucidated its principal scientific achievements. The history of the station began with the creation of the greatest in Russian Empire nursery farm by the outstanding Ukrainian pomologist Levko Platonovych Symyrenko near Mliiv (the now Cherkasy region). As early as in 1912 the cultivars of different plants numbered almost to 3 thousand here. On November 25, 1920 according to the decision of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the Ukrainian SSR the Mliiv Horticultural and Truck Gardening Research Station was created on the basis of the above mentioned nursery. Its first director was L.P. Symyrenko’s son Volodymyr Levkovych, who embodied the creative ideas of the great-grandfather, grandfather and father, realized the cause of several generations of the Symyrenkos. He was a real founder of the Ukrainian horticulture, namely: created and developed all the attributes of Ukrainian pomology, systems of research institutions and state nurseries and the State "Pomological Book". V.L. Symyrenko, professors L.M. Ro and V.P. Popov, research worker M.A. Grossheim and others were major organizers of the station. With their direct participation the departments of horticulture, vegetable growing, entomology, agricultural meteorology, phytopathology, technical processing of fruits and small fruits, agrochemistry ets. were founded and functioned by 1927 already. In 1958 the station was named after L.P. Symyrenko. In the April of 1989 on the initiative of its then director M.M. Artemenko and with the support of the scientific collective it was reorganized as the Mliiv L.P. Symyrenko Research Institute of Horticulture of the Lisosteppe of Ukraine, in 1992 in accordance with tho order of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences (UAAS) renamed as Mliiv L.P. Symyrenko Institute of Horticulture of UAAS and in 2006 as L.P. Symyrenko Institute of Pomology of UAAS. In 2017 it was reorganized as the L.P. Symyrenko Research Station of Pomology of the Institute of Horticulture of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences (NAAS). Today, it is one of the leading scientific institutions of the NAAS system in the horticultural branch. The scientific and research works are carried out in conformity with the four scientific and technical programmes of NAAS: “Genetical Resources of Plants”, “Horticulture and Small-Fruit Growing”, “Plant Protection” and “Agrarian Economics”. The main direction of the institution research activity is the elaboration of the scientific basis of the preservation and spread of the genetic versatility of the fruit, small fruit, nuciferous and minor crops. At present more than 3,000 varieties of fruit, small fruit, nuciferous and ornamental crops are studied in the collectional plantations. That is the valuable genetic fund of Ukraine. Today 72 varieties bred by the Mliiv Research Station have been entered into the State Register of the Plant Cultivars Favourable for the Spread in Ukraine.

Introduction

Chapter 1 introduces the central argument of the book, namely, that the means Christian missionaries adopted in building certain evangelical institutions in colonial India modified the ends they sought to achieve through building them. Observing that there are no studies on colonial Sunday schools, the chapter notes that the relevant missionary archives have fewer records of doctrinal debates between Christians and non-Christians than of missionary concerns over the means required for institution-building. Consequently, in keeping with the data, the chapter proposes employing a methodology that entails studying “means” over “ends.” To do this, it proposes adopting the theoretical framework of sociologist Max Weber, which draws a distinction between “substantive” and “instrumental” rationality. In the present study, this pair of concepts is taken to denote the distinction between missionaries’ beliefs and worldview or values or “ends,” and the material and symbolic resources or “means” they deployed in building Sunday schools. Further, applying the theory of institution-formation presented by sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, it proposes that Sunday schools were atypical institutions. Yet, such schools were built on compromise, with American Protestant missionaries taking the lead, and with different Indian social groups also taking an active part. The chapter foreshadows how the book presents the ends/means conflict among Sunday school builders throughout the Victorian colonial period (1858–1901), and how the compromises they reached signify universal values that transcended sectarian and national boundaries. The chapter situates the book among other approaches to colonial studies, and makes a case for its novelty.

Regime Shocks in India, Mexico, and Eritrea

Chapter 4 provides new information about specific case studies of three well-known diaspora engagement efforts: the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, and the Department of Eritreans Abroad. Emphasizing the strengths of a mixed-methods approach, the chapter quotes and comments on extensive passages from in-depth elite interviews with senior policy makers in these countries. The chapter fleshes out the dynamics of regime shock and diaspora institution formation introduced previously. In all three cases, diaspora institutions have, in various ways, responded to major territorial reconfigurations and involved elements of human geopolitical claims over population rather than territory.

Perfil e produção científi ca dos bolsistas de produtividade em pesquisa do CNPQ da área de estomaterapia

Este estudo teve como objetivo identifi car o perfi l e a produção científi ca dos bolsistas produtividade em pesquisado CNPq da área de Estomaterapia no triênio 2010-2012. Estudo descritivo, transversal e quantitativo. Para acoleta de dados, no mês de maio de 2014, preencheu-se a partir dos currículos Lattes, um instrumento sobre: sexo,estado de procedência, instituição de formação, categoria administrativa de atuação, tempo de formação, tempo dedoutoramento, categoria profi ssional, classifi cação da bolsa, produção científi ca de artigos publicados em periódicose seus respectivos Qualis. Foram identifi cados 16 bolsistas e a maioria, 12 (75%), era do sexo feminino e da regiãosudeste, 9 (56,3%). O tempo médio de formação e de doutoramento foi respectivamente 33,3 e 16,4 anos. Quantoà instituição de formação e a categoria administrativa da instituição prevaleceu a estadual, respectivamente, 8(50%) e 11 (68,8%). Entre os bolsistas, predominou a Enfermagem, 13 (81,3%), e bolsas PQ-2, 8 (50%). Em média,os bolsistas publicaram 24,7 (DP= 14,9) artigos sobre temáticas gerais e 2,5 (DP= 5,3) na área de Estomaterapia.Estudos dessa natureza são necessários para verifi car o que tem sido produzido pela Estomaterapia.Palavras-chave: Indicadores de produção científi ca; Enfermagem; Indicadores bibliométricos. ABSTRACTThis study aimed to identify the profi le and scientifi c production of researchers with productivity grants of CNPqin stomatherapy in the 2010-2012 triennium. Descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative study. Data collectionwas realized through the lattes curriculum in may 2014,from fi lling out an instrument about: gender, state oforigin, training institution, formation time, doctoral time, professional category, classifi cation of grant, scientifi cproduction of published journals and their respective Qualis. Were identifi ed 16 recipients of grants and most of12 (75%) was female and of the southeast region (56.3%). Average training and doctoral time was respectively33.31 and 16.44 years. As training institution and the administrative category of institution prevailed statewide,respectively 8 (50%) and 11 (68.8%). Among the recipients of grants, prevailed nursing 13 (81.3%) and grant 2category (50%). In average the grants’ recipients published 24,7 (SD=14,9) articles about general topics and 2,5(SD=5,3) in stomatherapy area. Such studies are necessary to verify what has been produced in stomathrerapy.Keywords: Scientifi c production indicators; Nursing; Bibliometric indicators.

Self-Regulation in the Area of Advertising: institution formation. Russian experience

The article analyzes the formation of institution of the Self-Regulation in the Area of Advertising in Russian Federation. The article analyzes, in particular, legal basis of the Self-Regulation in the Area of Advertising, specified by the 1995 Federal law «On Advertising», also analyzes active provisions of the 2006 «On Advertising» Federal Law. The article concludes that the above-stated institution currently is in an ititial state of it's development.