Reclaiming Universalism: Ontology and World Politics

The lecture presents a new approach to political universalism, grounded in the reinterpretation of world politics from an ontological perspective. In the discipline of International Relations the concept of world politics remains ambivalent, functioning both as a synonym of international relations and their antonym, referring to the aspirations for the overcoming of interstate pluralism in favour of a universalist politics of the global community or the world state.

Patchwork Welfare States in East Central Europe: Reassessing the Utility of Typologies

Attempts at categorizing East Central European welfare states into existing or new typologies led to inconsistent findings and often very vague labels in order to classify rather diverse entities under a single type. This paper (briefly) considers the use of typologies in comparative social science research more generally and in comparative welfare state research in particular. Then I reflect on the reasons behind the vague and inconsistent categorization of East Central European welfare states in the existing literature.

Scholarly & Social Meeting: Crime and Punishment in the Post-Stalinist Soviet Union

We are pleased to announce the second lecture of this semester in the series "History Department Scholarly & Social Meeting"  taking place next Tuesday, October 15th, in Hanák Room, at 17:30.
Alfred J. Rieber will give a lecture on:

 Crime and Punishment in the Post-Stalinist Soviet Union

“The problems of violence still remain very obscure.” Sorel