URBAN SPACES WITH FOUNTAINS: NOISE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REGIME FORMATION REGULARITY

The article highlights the problem of loss of the ability to solve design problems by the modern creators of the settlements based on knowledge of the functional structure of the object, demands of potential consumers, taking into account the features of the object’s location in the selected area, while creating a safe, reliable and comfortable environment able to implement functions for which it is intended. Guided by the specialized publications in the field of the liquid and gas hydraulics and mechanics, the author considers and describes in detail the water flows and their impact on space characteristics, including options for the contribution of hydraulic noise to space acoustics, taking into account human perception, and options for contribution of the atmospheric air temperature and humidity variability to the thermal balance of the city residents. The parameters of buildings are identified, the change of which affects the change of space characteristics. The regularities of the impact of fountains during operation on the space noise and ecological regime formation, which will provide consumer needs and comfortable conditions necessary for a positive physical perception of space, are determined. The results of the study will be used as a reference material in the development of graphic models and techniques of the architectural and planning arrangement of urban spaces with fountains, which, being perfectly integrated into the urban fabric will ensure sustainable development of the spaces with fountains over time.

States, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia: Comparative Religious Regime Formation

This chapter seeks to account for the political origins of “religious regimes”—institutional relations between political authority (a secular state) and clerical authority (organized religion)—through a comparative historical analysis of three Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Despite relatively similar historical, geopolitical, and sociocultural conditions—and against their original intentions—these three nations have established distinctive types of religious regimes since independence: secular-dominant (Indonesia), established-religion (Malaysia), and religious monarchy (Brunei). The chapter argues that the varying pathways adopted by these three nations are the result of state formation, specifically the ways in which secular political elites pursued and consolidated their state powers and domination during post-independence institution-building. Moreover, the chapter’s comparative analysis suggests that the type of—and timing of—religious regime formation is essential to account for the ability and willingness of late-developing democracies such as Indonesia and Malaysia to protect basic civil rights and freedom of religious (and nonreligious) communities and people. In contrast to Christian-dominant Europe, where mostly secular regimes were formed concomitantly to facilitate democratic transition and consolidation, late-developing Muslim democracies have seen the consolidation of religious regimes prior to the formation of modern state and popular democratic movements and consolidation. As a result, late-developing Muslim democracies have tended to see more aggressive religious authorities contesting and complicating the trajectories of democratic consolidation.

Digital society in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: first results and prospects (comparative analysis of the experience of Russia and Bulgaria)

This work aims to study the peculiarities of digital society development in Russia and Bulgaria in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to solve this task the authors used a variety of methods, namely comparative analysis, critical analysis, and case-stage method. The article analyzes the experience of the socio-political processes of digitalization in Russia and Bulgaria in the context of the self-isolation regime formation in both countries. The authors put forward a hypothesis that both countries have found themselves in recent months in the conditions of forced digitalization, which has left its mark on the processes of the natural evolution of digital society. The results of the study give ground to conclude that forced digitalization lies mainly in the intensification and randomization of digital communication flows, but not in the qualitative development of a digital society and the emergence of new technological solutions that could contribute to effective and meaningful socio-political development. The practical significance of the work lies in the comprehension of the current processes of the socio-political sphere’s digitalization and identifying key problems and challenges, without which it is impossible to successfully solve the problems of the transition of contemporary society to a new stage of its evolution in the digital environment.

Social Pacts over Time

The chapter uses statistical methods to test observable implications of the book’s arguroent that are visible in spending patterns over time. Establishing an important crowding-out effect between military and social spending in the Middle East, the chapter empirically corroborates a key mechanism of the theory: that is, a trade-off between ‘butter and guns: Itfurther demonstrates that the authoritarian coalitions which emerged from regime formation have had important effects on the way in which (i) regimes cut back social spending in times of economic decline and (ii) distributed resource windfalls, such as oil rents. In so doing, the chapter sheds light on the variation in social spending over time within each welfare regime type.

Welfare Efforts in Comparative Perspective

This chapter provides an analytical overview of welfare provision in labour· abundant MENA regimes. Organized in sections by country and covering the period from regime formation until the late 2000s, the chapter pays particular attention to spending levels and the accessibility of social policies, and maps the eigbt regimes onto the three different pathways of welfare provision outlined in Chapter I. It draws on a combination of historical reports and statistics, available secondary accounts, and a novel dataset on social expenditures developed from archival material of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It also diversifies the picture by examining policies of education, health, and social protection separately. The chapter lays important groundwork for further analyses and gives a more complete sense of social policy regimes beyond the social spending figures presented in Chapter I.