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• Trojan horse and fig leaf: the role of populism in the global crisis of democracy and the postmodern autocracies

  30-61

  István Benedek

  Views:

  72

  It is my contention that populism could be an appropriate framework to understand and link the phenomena of global crisis of democracy and spread of postmodern autocracies. In order to substantiate this claim with the method of literature review, I have examined first the characteristics of these phenomena and then I have focused the nature of relationship between them, in particular with regard to the complex system of stability of new types of autocracies, in which, I think, populism playing a key role. Populism, understood it as an autocratic interpretation of democracy and representation, could be a particularly dangerous Trojan horse for democracy. Above all, because of its idea of a single, homogeneous and authentic people that can be genuinely represented only by populists, and because of this representative claim is a moralized form of antipluralism. In addition, populism is also an important feature of postmodern autocracies, especially of electoral autocracy. By means of populism, it is possible for these regimes to camouflage and even legitimise the autocratic trends and exercise of power, as well as the creation an uneven playing field for political contestation behind their formally multi-party elections and democratic façade. As a radical turn towards traditional forms of autocracies would be too expensive, postmodern autocrats need manipulated multi-party elections and other plebiscite techniques that could serve as quasi-democratic legitimation, as well as populism that could transform political contestation to a life-and-death struggle and, provides other important cognitive functions. Therefore, populist autocracy, as a paradigmatic type of postmodern autocracies, will remain with us for a long time, giving more and more tasks to researchers involved in them.

• The moral restoration of business relations: Management from a Christian point of view

  71-90

  Eszter Tóth

  Tünde Dr. Csapóné Dr. Riskó

  Views:

  36

  Globalisation is a complex and worldwide process overarching historical times and continents.
  It started with the great geographical discoveries, continued with the emergence of world trade
  and the development of a truly global market reaching its present status. Globalisation has both
  negative and positive effects. Out of the positive effects it has to be emphasised that more and
  more zones of our planet benefit from the advances in sciences and techniques, more and more people have better access to work, education and the necessary commodities to meet their basic
  needs. Globalisation has brought efficiency and new opportunities to companies, providing practically free access to raw materials, labour and knowledge. Out of the negative effects degradation of the biosphere, the greater social and economic inequality especially in the developing
  countries has to be pointed out. Some companies are operating worldwide and have acquired
  great economic power and influence. Governments have only limited possibilities to regulate
  their operation. The expenses of profit maximisation are high, which are often ‘paid’ by the social-natural environment (as externalities). The aim of our study is to overview how current
  business relations could be formed to be more human and environment friendly from the point
  of view of Christian philosophy. It has to be pointed out that our study is focusing on the Christian
  point of view, although in our globalised world when studying business relations we should not
  forget about the role of other world major religious groups.