Poliarchie/Polyarchies volume 6 n. 1/2023

After the launch of the Five-Year Plan, the economic policy of the USSR and its regime changed. Overturning the Marxist theses, Stalin theorized the escalation of the class struggle as the full realization of socialism was approaching. This policy shift and ideological revision triggered the repression of the prosperous peasantry, kwown as kulaks. Forced industrialization required the mobilization of the workforce and new economic resources for the purchase of machinery on the international market. Both these problems were faced and partly resolved through the colonization of Siberia, which was very rich in raw materials for export, and the use of the forced labor of prisoners, locked up in special labor camps. The city of Magadan, built in the Siberian Far East, responded to all these needs.

Almost two decades after its opening to Africa, Turkey is widely recognized as one of the most active extra-regional players on the continent. This observation raises the question of how this has been possible. In other words, how has Turkey boosted its footprint in Africa? Is there a well-defined and comprehensive strategy or have choices been determined by political contingencies? By examining the different steps of Turkish engagement in Africa, the article tries to address these queries. It sheds light on how Turkey’s policy addresses external inputs and domestic political changes through pragmatic flexibility. Over the years, Turkey has tailored its African policy to systemic and domestic changes. This trait has led to a volatile but continuously transforming approach toward Africa.

During the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, more couples in Italy considered giving birth at home with the assistance of private midwives, by questioning the social norm of a hospital birth. This article discusses the findings produced through a qualitative study that has reached 16 home birth experts and 22 women who gave birth at home between 2020 and 2022. It emerges that the midwives’ dedication to their profession is embedded in their awareness of being contributors to social change (in terms of the demedicalisation of birth and women’s empowerment) initiated in the 1970s by older generations of midwives and birth activists. Parents tend to make sense of their home birth as a matter of individual choice and wish that this choice could be soon or later normalized. However, midwives and parents rarely engage with policy makers and tend to be content to express their values in their professional practice and birth/parenting choices.

This article aims to asses - from an anthropological perspective - the model of accompaniment to pregnancy, childbirth and birth represented by Maternity homes, non-health facilities run by midwives on a freelance basis. In Italy, the number of these facilities has grown considerably in recent years, currently reaching 19. The aim of this work is, on the one hand, to provide a mapping of these facilities, outlining similarities in their genesis and the services they provide; on the other, to reflect on the potential of this model for supporting the process of birth, which incorporates both the instances relating to the exercise of reproductive rights (such as women’s right to choose the circumstances of their own birth), and the international evidence-based recommendations (WHO 2018a). These include the ‘continuity of care’ during pregnancy and childbirth, that is often disregarded in the hospitalized birth. The integral approach – including support that often continues even after the birth (e.g. through the activities of groups of parents who have given birth in the same place) - will be investigated in the light of the peculiarities of the non-interventionist approach that characterises this type of facility.

Motherhood in prison is a little-discussed topic due to the small number of incarcerated women. Few studies have given voice to incarcerated mothers to speak directly about their condition. This contribution, through a survey of the international scientific literature and making use of a decade of teaching experience in prisons, combined with field observation activities on behalf of the Antigone Association, took stock of the condition of imprisoned motherhood in Italy and the laws in force. Interviews with imprisoned mothers were analyzed in the light of the reform proposals initiated in our country to ensure that imprisoned mothers can continue to bond with their children in non-custodial settings.

Poliarchie/Polyarchies is multi-disciplinary journal which aims at promoting the encounter of the social sciences and humanities, ranging from sociology and political science to history, economics, law and philosophy. The analysis of political and social change can indeed be investigated from different perspectives and with the help of a variety of methodological tools. Poliarche/Polyarchies embraces a range of contemporary issues: processes of supranational integration and democratization in the world; the transformation of contemporary societies under the pressure of immigration and environmental challenges; the crises of “electoral democracy” in Europe and the development of a deliberative model of democracy; the potential “clash of civilizations” and socio-religious conflict; the resurgence of nationalisms and micro-regionalism in Europe and in the world; the integration of policy processes into networks and of communities into new frameworks and governance systems. The journal has an anonymous referee system and two issues per year are expected.

After the First Republic, a growing instability has been affecting Italian politics at different levels. Most of the literature has focused on the transformation of Italian political and party systems from a national point of view; however, the analysis of regional level could be used to better understand the trajectories of instability in Italy. The paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on instability and regional politics. An analysis of national, regional and European electoral data in three different periods (First Republic, bipolar Second Republic, tripolar Second Republic) will be provided in order to assess the degree of instability of each region over time. Regional majorities are confirmed to have become increasingly unsure about their own re-election even in those territories being historically considered as parties’ strongholds at subnational level; the results of the analysis show that instability affects all regional political systems even more after the appearance of a third pole (the Movimento 5 Stelle – M5S) in 2013, with the only exception of the Veneto region.

In the last twenty years of the last century the dynamic aspects of Central-Eastern Europe started to prevail over the static and stable ones, related to the characteristics of the dominant power of the area. The crisis of the URSS (which was an ideological, economic and political crisis, and not military one) had a very strong impact on the allied communist European countries. For this reason, the real possibility of an aggravation of the overall situation posed the great problem of what to do immediately. On this basis and thanks to the intuition of Václav Havel, the Visegrád group was born in February 1991. This essay will try to give an initial answer to some questions related to the short, but already intense history of the Group, focusing on its origins, the “return” to Europe and the birth of sovereignism.