Philosophy and Society 2025 – 36/2
The second issue in 2025 of the journal Philosophy and Society (Philosophy and Society 2025-36/2) brings a thematic section: Elections, Democracy, Crisis. Moreover, in this issue readers can find original scientific papers on heritage practices, public history and democracy, on the significance of social sciences and humanities in military education, and on spiritual care in Swedish prisons. Moreover, this issue includes a review of Søren Mau’s book, Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital, written by Damir Zejnulahović.
ELECTIONS, DEMOCRACY, CRISIS
The thematic section Elections, Democracy, Crisis begins with Jurijs Ņikišins’s paper “The Quest for Democratic Bliss: Which Dimensions Hold the Key?”. This study examines how Europeans evaluate democracy across several key dimensions: electoral, liberal, social, etc., using ESS Round 10 data. Despite a broad consensus on the importance of democratic principles, perceptions of democratic quality vary widely, with Nordic countries ranking highest and parts of Eastern Europe trailing.
Gerard Conway’s paper “Democracy Before the Court: Democracy as a Justiciable Concept in the EU” explores how democracy, as a justiciable concept under EU law, interacts with other foundational values in TEU, such as the rule of law and human rights. It highlights the challenges of interpreting democracy across diverse national contexts and emphasizes the Court of Justice's role in navigating the complex, often incommensurable, relationship between EU values. The author proposes a framework based on reflective equilibrium and threshold tests to assess democratic practices.
Ian Parenteau’s article “Navigating the Limits: Electoral Management Bodies and the Struggle Against Disinformation and Foreign Interference” shows that disinformation and foreign interference have increasingly distorted electoral competition and voter awareness, posing serious risks to democratic processes. Despite the urgency of these challenges, Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) face significant institutional, legal, and technical barriers that hinder effective responses. Their limited mandate, lack of authority over electoral laws and online platforms, and the non-criminal nature of much disinformation leave them ill-equipped to counter these threats.
Democratic backsliding is often analyzed at the national level, but Adam Szymański’s study “Crisis of Democracy in Poland – Does It Affect the Subnational Levels?” shifts focus to the subnational sphere, exploring how local and regional governance in Poland evolved between 2015 and 2023 under the Law and Justice government. It examines both the direction of democratic or autocratic shifts and their interplay with national-level developments. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews, media, and surveys, the research highlights how central political dynamics shape and sometimes constrain democratic practices at the local level.
The study “The Evolution of the ‘Carpathian Basin’ Discourse in the Hungarian Parliament (1998–2020)” by Eszter Katona, Renáta Németh, and Anna Unger analyzes 1525 parliamentary speeches from Hungary (1998–2020) to trace how the term “Carpathian Basin” has re-emerged and evolved across political ideologies. Using automated text analysis, it reveals increasing polarization in discourse, yet also uncovers surprising overlaps in nationalist framing across left, right, and Fidesz blocs. Findings suggest a growing convergence around national identity themes.
Focusing on the 2014 and 2019 local elections in Artvin, Türkiye, Erdoğan Altun’s study titled “When Clientelism is in Crisis: Brokers of JDP during 2014 and 2019 Local Elections in Türkiye” investigates how political brokers influence clientelistic dynamics at the local level. In the Turkish context, where party, state, and government elites are deeply intertwined, brokers play a crucial role in connecting citizens with public resources. The analysis explores how these intermediaries shape electoral outcomes, highlighting their embeddedness in both political structures and everyday life.
Türkiye’s shift to a presidential system after the 2017 referendum has been accompanied by increasingly assertive foreign policy toward the European Union, especially following the 2016 coup attempt. However, this assertiveness contrasts with a more nuanced domestic rhetoric marked by political polarization and nationalism, particularly regarding EU-related security policies. The article “Limits of a Competitive Authoritarianism in Security Policies: Interpreting Türkiye’s Approach towards the EU“ by Edoardo Lavezzo argues that while Türkiye has moved toward competitive authoritarianism, its security approach has softened overt confrontation with the EU.
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis deeply impacted Serbia’s fragile economy, contributing to the collapse of the post-2000 political consensus and enabling the rise of the populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The last study in this thematic section titled “Voting after Transition: Political Preferences of Serbia’s Transitional Losers” by Nikola Jović and Dejan Bursać tests whether socioeconomic groups hit hardest by the crisis (such as the elderly, low-skilled workers, the unemployed, and rural populations) continue to provide stable electoral support for SNS after 12 years in power. Using original nationwide survey data, the findings suggest that the lasting effects of economic hardships still shape voter behavior in Serbia.
STUDIES AND ARTICLES
In their article “Heritage, Public History and Democracy“, Miloš Ničić and Sanja Iguman Glušac examine the complex relationship between heritage, public history and democracy, arguing that heritage is not a neutral transmission of the past but a contested, constructed and politically charged process. The authors argue that heritage and public history are essential tools for democratic engagement, when heritage is perceived as a participatory and reflective practice.
Dragan Stanar and Srđan Starčević in their article “The Place and Significance of Social Sciences and Humanities in Modern Military Education” emphasise the importance of the social and humanistic sciences in military education, especially in today’s context of rapid technological advancement. Given the specific mission of the military and the demands that society places on members of the military institution, the significance of these sciences cannot be overlooked.
The last paper in this issue is by Sabina Bodin Hadžibulić titled “Spiritual Care in Swedish Prisons: Practices and Experiences of Spiritual Caregivers“. The author’s study relies on the concept of lived religion in the analysis of the experiences and practices of spiritual caregivers. The goal of the article is to understand how prison conditions of different security classes affect spiritual care practice and what strategies spiritual caregivers use to help prisoners create and maintain their religiosity.
