Pub Date : 2021-04-20DOI: 10.22215/CJERS.V14I2.2763
Markus Lederer
The idea of a green deal transforming industrialized societies’ climate policies in a sustainable manner has become highly popular in various countries. The study takes up this notion focusing on climate policy initiatives in Canada and the EU, raising three interrelated issues: (i) on a descriptive level, the study asks where we stand and what has so far been achieved regarding climate policy; (ii) analytically, the study provides a theoretical explanation of why progress has been slow in the EU and hardly visible in Canada, making use of the concept of carbon democracy; (iii) on a prescriptive level, the study explores what will be needed to make a green deal successful, arguing that one has to accept that a green deal is a deeply political project that will create winners and losers and that not all losers can be compensated under the label of a “just transition”. The argument advanced is that the EU and Canada represent a form of carbon democracy in which the extensive use of carbon laid the foundation for establishing democratic institutions and strongly shaped them. The paper shows that the extensive influence of carbon-related activities not only empowers specific non-state agents but is rather deeply enmeshed in the societal and political genome of both regions’ polities. The claim that follows is that climate politics in Canada and the EU will have to be deeply transformative and therefore disruptive in order to be successful.
{"title":"Climate Change Politics in Canada and the EU—from Carbon Democracy to a Green Deal?","authors":"Markus Lederer","doi":"10.22215/CJERS.V14I2.2763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/CJERS.V14I2.2763","url":null,"abstract":"The idea of a green deal transforming industrialized societies’ climate policies in a sustainable manner has become highly popular in various countries. The study takes up this notion focusing on climate policy initiatives in Canada and the EU, raising three interrelated issues: (i) on a descriptive level, the study asks where we stand and what has so far been achieved regarding climate policy; (ii) analytically, the study provides a theoretical explanation of why progress has been slow in the EU and hardly visible in Canada, making use of the concept of carbon democracy; (iii) on a prescriptive level, the study explores what will be needed to make a green deal successful, arguing that one has to accept that a green deal is a deeply political project that will create winners and losers and that not all losers can be compensated under the label of a “just transition”. The argument advanced is that the EU and Canada represent a form of carbon democracy in which the extensive use of carbon laid the foundation for establishing democratic institutions and strongly shaped them. The paper shows that the extensive influence of carbon-related activities not only empowers specific non-state agents but is rather deeply enmeshed in the societal and political genome of both regions’ polities. The claim that follows is that climate politics in Canada and the EU will have to be deeply transformative and therefore disruptive in order to be successful. \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45031590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-15DOI: 10.22215/CJERS.V14I1.2667
A. Tsurkan
In 2019, Canada and Russia went through election campaigns in their respective countries. While Canada voted at the federal level, Russia held regional and municipal elections, and therefore the scale and outcome of these two campaigns cannot be compared per se. Yet shifting a focus to media coverage, this paper explores Canada-Russia relations at a given moment in time, including the extent to which disinformation took place on either side. The two countries were actively involved in cross-commenting about the situation on the ground. Russian English-language media outlets were visibly more anti-Trudeau in nature in their Canadian election coverage, while Canadian authorities called on their Russiancounterparts to respect freedoms of assembly during pre-election opposition rallies in Moscow. However, in a modern highly interconnected world, where should the border between news reporting/tweeting and an attempt to interfere in elections be located; and how do these efforts advance each country’s interests?
{"title":"Elections in Canada and Russia in 2019: a comparative analysis of cross-national media coverage","authors":"A. Tsurkan","doi":"10.22215/CJERS.V14I1.2667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/CJERS.V14I1.2667","url":null,"abstract":"In 2019, Canada and Russia went through election campaigns in their respective countries. While Canada voted at the federal level, Russia held regional and municipal elections, and therefore the scale and outcome of these two campaigns cannot be compared per se. Yet shifting a focus to media coverage, this paper explores Canada-Russia relations at a given moment in time, including the extent to which disinformation took place on either side. The two countries were actively involved in cross-commenting about the situation on the ground. Russian English-language media outlets were visibly more anti-Trudeau in nature in their Canadian election coverage, while Canadian authorities called on their Russiancounterparts to respect freedoms of assembly during pre-election opposition rallies in Moscow. However, in a modern highly interconnected world, where should the border between news reporting/tweeting and an attempt to interfere in elections be located; and how do these efforts advance each country’s interests?","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42221784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-04DOI: 10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2690
Viktoriya Thomson
The role of the EU in the promotion of Europeanization and the EU political identity in potential member states of Eastern Europe prior to the 2004 enlargement was important for these states’ future acceptation in the EU community. However, most research and literature have discounted the role of the EU and its attractiveness in the countries neighbouring with the EU that did not have a prospect of joining the EU in 2004. This article studies the process of formal and informal Europeanization in Ukraine before and after the Orange revolution, which occurred five months after the bloc’s 2004 enlargement, and Euromaidan of 2013. Despite the EU’s passive leverage in Ukraine between 2004 and 2013, and the country’s weak prospects for potential membership, the EU’s soft power of attractiveness was still an effective tool that was used by Ukrainian political elite and media in promoting informal Europeanization after the 2004 enlargement. Furthermore, confidence in the EU was associated with support for such liberal values as human rights, tolerance of minorities, and political efficacy. This article posits that notwithstanding weak incentives and support offered from the EU to implement formal Europeanization in Ukraine, the EU attractiveness was successfully applied by local elite and media to promote the informal Europeanization.
{"title":"Europeans but outside of the EU - the EU Soft Power of Attractiveness in Ukraine Between the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan","authors":"Viktoriya Thomson","doi":"10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2690","url":null,"abstract":"The role of the EU in the promotion of Europeanization and the EU political identity in potential member states of Eastern Europe prior to the 2004 enlargement was important for these states’ future acceptation in the EU community. However, most research and literature have discounted the role of the EU and its attractiveness in the countries neighbouring with the EU that did not have a prospect of joining the EU in 2004. This article studies the process of formal and informal Europeanization in Ukraine before and after the Orange revolution, which occurred five months after the bloc’s 2004 enlargement, and Euromaidan of 2013. Despite the EU’s passive leverage in Ukraine between 2004 and 2013, and the country’s weak prospects for potential membership, the EU’s soft power of attractiveness was still an effective tool that was used by Ukrainian political elite and media in promoting informal Europeanization after the 2004 enlargement. Furthermore, confidence in the EU was associated with support for such liberal values as human rights, tolerance of minorities, and political efficacy. This article posits that notwithstanding weak incentives and support offered from the EU to implement formal Europeanization in Ukraine, the EU attractiveness was successfully applied by local elite and media to promote the informal Europeanization.","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49246503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-02DOI: 10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2562
Vello Pettai
As the Baltic states commemorated the centenary of their first appearance as independent states in 2018, their celebrations were mixed with feelings of ambiguity about the road travelled since then. Although today we often see Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as 'post-communist' countries, their experience with communism was actually much harsher than in Central Europe, since, for nearly fifty years, the three countries were forcibly a part of the Soviet Union. This has made their journey back into the European community all that more remarkable, and it has also served to keep these countries somewhat more resistant to the dangers of democratic backsliding. After all, their continued independence and well-being are intricately dependent on keeping the European liberal order intact. Nevertheless, the winds of populism have also begun to buffet these three countries, meaning that they have been struggling to keep their balancing act going. This article reviews the development of the Baltic states over the last 20 years, both in terms of domestic politics and EU accession and membership. It profiles the way in which the three countries have been trying to keep their faith in democracy and liberalism alive amidst ever more turbulent political and economic times.
{"title":"The Baltic States: Keeping the Faith in Turbulent Times","authors":"Vello Pettai","doi":"10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2562","url":null,"abstract":"As the Baltic states commemorated the centenary of their first appearance as independent states in 2018, their celebrations were mixed with feelings of ambiguity about the road travelled since then. Although today we often see Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as 'post-communist' countries, their experience with communism was actually much harsher than in Central Europe, since, for nearly fifty years, the three countries were forcibly a part of the Soviet Union. This has made their journey back into the European community all that more remarkable, and it has also served to keep these countries somewhat more resistant to the dangers of democratic backsliding. After all, their continued independence and well-being are intricately dependent on keeping the European liberal order intact. Nevertheless, the winds of populism have also begun to buffet these three countries, meaning that they have been struggling to keep their balancing act going. This article reviews the development of the Baltic states over the last 20 years, both in terms of domestic politics and EU accession and membership. It profiles the way in which the three countries have been trying to keep their faith in democracy and liberalism alive amidst ever more turbulent political and economic times.","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43354091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2619
R. Epstein
By some measures, the European Union’s Eastern enlargement, and the attendant securitization of East Central Europe through membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have brought significant economic and welfare benefits to the former Soviet satellites or republics that have joined these organizations. All of their economies are considerably larger than in 1989. Foreign investment has helped fuel significant growth in the region, and financial linkages between East and West had a stabilizing influence during and after the US financial crisis of 2008-09. But economic success in absolute terms has not prevented a sense of disappointment from settling over the region, nor has it forestalled an illiberal backlash in a number of countries, which has had economic, political, and in some cases ethno-populist dimensions. This article examines some of the main economic trajectories around growth, consumption, investment, and finance. It explains why, despite numerous positive measures, both economic and political liberalism are under intensifying scrutiny. Growing inequality within countries, as well as continuing inequality – including power disparities between East and West Europe – have fueled discontent with the terms on which many East Central European states have integrated into the EU.
{"title":"The Economic Successes and Sources of Discontent in East Central Europe","authors":"R. Epstein","doi":"10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2619","url":null,"abstract":"By some measures, the European Union’s Eastern enlargement, and the attendant securitization of East Central Europe through membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have brought significant economic and welfare benefits to the former Soviet satellites or republics that have joined these organizations. All of their economies are considerably larger than in 1989. Foreign investment has helped fuel significant growth in the region, and financial linkages between East and West had a stabilizing influence during and after the US financial crisis of 2008-09. But economic success in absolute terms has not prevented a sense of disappointment from settling over the region, nor has it forestalled an illiberal backlash in a number of countries, which has had economic, political, and in some cases ethno-populist dimensions. This article examines some of the main economic trajectories around growth, consumption, investment, and finance. It explains why, despite numerous positive measures, both economic and political liberalism are under intensifying scrutiny. Growing inequality within countries, as well as continuing inequality – including power disparities between East and West Europe – have fueled discontent with the terms on which many East Central European states have integrated into the EU. ","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45910925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2563
Béla Galgóczi
The Eastern EU enlargement (2004, 2007, 2013) is still one of the success stories of the EU (and unprecedented in the world), but at the same time it is controversial and is perceived as controversial. One of the core problems has been its unbalanced character: the whole process had a clear `Single Market` focus and the values of a `Social Europe` were of secondary importance. Based on a neofunctionalist approach the paper discusses the integration of the new member states from the point of view of economic and income convergence. Along with a literature review, data on wages, productivity and output will be analysed to demonstrate that upward convergence of the poorer new member states towards the EU average had been stalled in wake of the 2009 crisis. The resulting cleavages put the core hypothesis of the neofunctionalist approach - that EU integration has a `direction` in terms of an upwards convergence - into question.
{"title":"Economic and Social Balance of 15 Years of Eastern Enlargement","authors":"Béla Galgóczi","doi":"10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v13i2.2563","url":null,"abstract":"The Eastern EU enlargement (2004, 2007, 2013) is still one of the success stories of the EU (and unprecedented in the world), but at the same time it is controversial and is perceived as controversial. One of the core problems has been its unbalanced character: the whole process had a clear `Single Market` focus and the values of a `Social Europe` were of secondary importance. Based on a neofunctionalist approach the paper discusses the integration of the new member states from the point of view of economic and income convergence. Along with a literature review, data on wages, productivity and output will be analysed to demonstrate that upward convergence of the poorer new member states towards the EU average had been stalled in wake of the 2009 crisis. The resulting cleavages put the core hypothesis of the neofunctionalist approach - that EU integration has a `direction` in terms of an upwards convergence - into question.","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43068389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.22215/currrg/2020.tracingcovid19data
Tracey P. Lauriault
Project Overview / Research Summary: There is much official COVID-19 data reporting by federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous Communities. As the pandemic evolves, and more information comes to light, there is a call to add data attributes about Indigenous, Black and Racialized groups and of the affected labour force, and to report where cases predominate. The pandemic also revealed that foundational datasets are missing, such as a national list of elder care homes, maps of local health regions and data about the digital divide. This project will embrace technological citizenship, adopt a critical data studies theoretical framework and a data humanitarian approach to rapidly assess data shortfalls, identify standards, and support the building of infrastructure. This involves training students, conducting rapid response research, developing a network of experts, learning by doing and a transdisciplinary team of peer reviewers to assess results. The knowledge will be mobilized in open access blog posts, infographics, policy briefs and scholarly publications.
{"title":"Tracing COVID-19 Data: Data and Technological Citizenship during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Tracey P. Lauriault","doi":"10.22215/currrg/2020.tracingcovid19data","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22215/currrg/2020.tracingcovid19data","url":null,"abstract":"Project Overview / Research Summary: There is much official COVID-19 data reporting by federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous Communities. As the pandemic evolves, and more information comes to light, there is a call to add data attributes about Indigenous, Black and Racialized groups and of the affected labour force, and to report where cases predominate. The pandemic also revealed that foundational datasets are missing, such as a national list of elder care homes, maps of local health regions and data about the digital divide. This project will embrace technological citizenship, adopt a critical data studies theoretical framework and a data humanitarian approach to rapidly assess data shortfalls, identify standards, and support the building of infrastructure. This involves training students, conducting rapid response research, developing a network of experts, learning by doing and a transdisciplinary team of peer reviewers to assess results. The knowledge will be mobilized in open access blog posts, infographics, policy briefs and scholarly publications.","PeriodicalId":36350,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48605352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}