POLITIKON: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science Vol 40 (March 2019) 2 Volume 40: March 2019 ISSN 2414-6633 https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.40 Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Max Steuer (Slovakia) Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Rafael Plancarte (Mexico) Ana Magdalena Figueroa (Brazil) Justinas Lingevičus (Lithuania) Stephanie Mojica (USA) Dana Rice (Australia) Gergana Tzvetkova (Bulgaria) Editorial Assistants Cláudia Susana Rodrigues de Araújo (Portugal) Andressa Liegi Vieira Costa (Brazil) Ngoc Anh Khoa Doan (Vietnam) Karla Drpić (Croatia) Damla Keşkekci (Turkey) Jesslene Lee (Singapore) Emmanuelle Rousseau (France) Kamila Suchomel (Czech Republic) Bruna Veríssimo (Brazil) https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.40 POLITIKON: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science Vol 40 (March 2019) 3 Table of Contents Editorial Note ....................................................................................................................... 4 Special Section: IAPSS Academic Think Tank & Academic Committee 2017/2018 Articles Attending to the wrong issue in the political spectrum: Right-wing populism for left- wing concerns in the EU / Lora Hadzhidimova and Aaron Stacey ..................................... 7 More integration or more disintegration in the European Union? A sociological perspective / Lora Hadzhidimova ....................................................................................... 28 Research Note Understanding the enlargement of the Eurasian Economic Union: The case of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan / Rigina Syssoyeva ..................................................................... 48 Article Domestic Politics as an Explanation for Voluntary Union: The Missing Case of the United Arab Republic / Joshua A. Schwartz ..................................................................... 61 Call for Papers .................................................................................................................... 76 POLITIKON: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science Vol 40 (March 2019) 4 Editorial Note https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.40.0 While each issue of IAPSS Politikon presents unique original texts, this issue is special in two additional respects. Firstly, Vol. 40 contains a special section bringing together the contributions of the members of the IAPSS Academic Think Tank and Academic Committee (ATT & ACOM). Thereby it continues the tradition of the journal to encourage submissions from individuals and research groups that are active in the Association. These submissions undergo an equally rigorous peer review process and at the same time point to some areas of current research interests of junior scholars. On this occasion, we are grateful to Dr. Jamila Glover, the 2017/2018 ATT & ACOM Coordinator, who facilitated this initiative and who introduces us to the special section below: The 2017-2018 ATT/ACOM research efforts focused on issues, debates and controversies related to the (un)intended consequences of globalization. Such topics included inequality, regional integration and the rise of nationalism. Lora Hadzhidimova and Aaron Stacey analyse the relationship between populism and the national concerns expressed by citizens in the European Union’s (EU) Eastern and Western member-states. The authors find that the predominant type of populism in the EU does not overlap with the type of concerns on a national level. The article concludes with outlining the implications of their findings. In a single-authored piece, Lora Hadzhidimova presents a comprehensive overview of the emergence, evolution and current state of scholarly debate on the contentious issue of integration in the European Union. She argues that the debate has shifted from a paradigm perspective to a problem driven approach. The article further contends that this new approach is optimal because it is pragmatic in solving complex problems that occur within the EU. Rigina Syssoyeva’s research note addresses the growth of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). She conducts s a rigorous qualitative research study that demonstrates that Schimmelfennig’s theoretical concepts can explain the process of enlargement of the EAEU. Subsequent but definitely not secondary to these contributions is the article by Joshua Schwartz who critically examines the argument Joseph Parent presented in his book Uniting States, and claims that it does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the emergence of voluntary mergers of states into one. Surveying the argument in detail, the article offers an in-depth analysis of the case of the United Arab Republic and concludes that there are other possible causes of voluntary unions than the one Parent identified. https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.40.0 POLITIKON: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science Vol 40 (March 2019) 5 The second speciality is the introduction of the IAPSS Politikon Best Article Award. This Award will be given out to the article published in each annual edition of IAPSS Politikon (comprising four issues of the journal each) that represents an outstanding contribution from the perspective of (1) the quality of the article’s work with concepts and theories and/or empirical data, (2) the originality of the article’s argument, and (3) the potential of the article to enhance academic discussion in Political Science and/or practice. The Award consists of a certificate of recognition, promotion of the winning article through the IAPSS channels, and a registration fee waiver for one of the upcoming IAPSS conferences within 12 months after the reception of the award. Honorable mentions may be given out in addition to the award accompanied with a certificate. Depending on available means, other prizes may be included into the award on a case-by-case basis. All research papers published in the journal are automatically eligible (there is no separate nomination process). The inaugural edition of the Award will be based on the issues published in 2018; however, the articles of Vol. 40 will be subject to evaluation in 2020, and those who consider the submission to the journal still have a chance, depending on the outcome of the evaluation process and the date of publication, to be considered for the 2020 edition of the Award. The Editorial Board hopes that the Award will encourage even more high-quality contributions as well as stimulate the readership and reflections on the published articles. As with other aspects of the journal’s functioning, the Politikon Best Article Award is a collaborative enterprise between junior scholars with the help of senior scholars.1 As such, the Award Committee consists of two senior scholars and one junior scholar, who may be joined by an Honorary Chairperson. The Honorary Chairperson is a senior scholar in the honour of whom the Award is given out for the respective year. Each of these scholars needs to demonstrate significant contributions to Political Science research and/or teaching but also to place special emphasis on support for students and junior scholars worldwide and/or in a particular region of the world where institutional support of this kind is lacking. We are pleased to announce that the inaugural Award Committee will be chaired by Professor İlter Turan, Past-President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University, who is thereby recognized for his contributions to the fields of comparative and Turkish politics and foreign policy, but also for the significant support provided to students and junior scholars through 1 It should be noted that there is no legal claim for this award nor for reviewing the Award Committee’s assessment, which also reserves the right not to hand out the Award in a particular year in case none of the articles exceed the quality standards determined for the Award. POLITIKON: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science Vol 40 (March 2019) 6 various positions in university administration and in IPSA. The names of the other members of the Award Committee will be announced together with the results of its work. Last but not least, the publication of this issue in advance of the publication date in order to increase the dissemination of new findings and discussions has been made possible by the continuous dedication of the Editorial Board as well as the Editorial Assistants. Also, welcome to the newest member of the Editorial Board, Dana Rice. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with many of you and to the introduction of further good news about the development of the journal in the near future. Max Steuer Editor-in-Chief Editorial Note