VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2, JULY 2018 ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION AS THE INSTRUMENT OF CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION IN EAST ASIA Ladislav CABADA and Šárka WAISOVÁ ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN POLAND. BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM AND CIVIC LOCALISM Agnieszka TURSKA-KAWA and Waldemar WOJTASIK ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY IN THE ECE AND THE CORE- PERIPHERY DIVIDE: RULE OF LAW CONFLICTS OF POLAND AND HUNGARY WITH THE EU Attila ÁGH ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: EAST EUROPEAN LESSONS FOR HONG KONG Kenneth KA-LOK CHAN ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... EUROPE: HELL OR PARADISE? AN OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN LAW AND CASE LAW Noemia BESSA VILELA and Boštjan BREZOVNIK ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... COPING WITH DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES: CASE OF SLOVENIAN LOCAL COMMUNITIES Simona KUKOVIČ ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2 EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief General Editor Miro Haček Peter Csányi ................................................................. ................................................................ University of Ljubljana Alexander Dubč ek University Trenčin Faculty of social sciences, CAAPPI Department of Political Science Kardeljeva ploščad 5 Študentská 2 1000 Ljub ljana , S lovenia 911 50 Trenčin, Slovakia [email protected] [email protected] General Editor General Editor Jurij Toplak Simona Kukovič .................................................................. .................................................................. Alma Mater Europ aea University of Ljubljana European Center Maribor (AMEU -ECM) Faculty of social sciences, CAAPPI Gosposka ulica 1 Kardeljeva ploščad 5 2000 Maribor , Slovenia 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia [email protected] [email protected] ...................................................... ................................ Articles appearing in JCP, are abstracted and indexed in following bibliographical databases: Scopus, Web of Science ESCI, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, International Political Science Abstracts, ProQuest Political Science, International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS), JournalSeek, UlrichsWeb, I2OR Database and Universal Impact Factor. EDITORIAL BOARD Davor BOBAN, University of Zagreb, Croatia Marjan BREZOVŠEK, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Ladislav CABADA, Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic Fernando CASAL BERTOA, University of Nottingham, UK Renata TRENESKA DESKOSKA, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Macedonia Đorđe GARDAŠEVIĆ, University of Zagreb, Croatia Victoria GRAHAM, Monash University Johannesburg, South Africa Pavol HRIVIK, Alexander Dubcek University of Trenčin, Slovakia Lars JOHANNSEN, Aarhus University, Denmark Kenneth KA-LOK CHAN, Hong Kong Baptist University, China Rudolf KUCHARČÍK, University of Economics Bratislava, Slovakia Lisa McINTOSH SUNDSTROM, University of British Columbia, Canada Eric PHÉLIPPEAU, University Paris Nanterre, France Meredith REDLIN, South Dakota State University, USA Andrius ŠUMINAS, Vilnius University, Lithuania Michael TKACIK, Stephen F. Austin State University, USA Taro TSUKIMURA, Doshisha University Kyoto, Japan Pablo VIDAL, Catholic University of Valencia, Spain Nebojša VLADISLAVLJEVIĆ, University of Belgrade, Serbia Werner WEIDENFELD, University of Munich, Germany Reuben WONG, National University of Singapore, Singapore George ZAMMIT, University of Malta, Malta Mattia ZULIANELLO, University of Florence, Italy CO-PUBLISHERS Department of Political Science Alexander Dubček University Trenčin Študentská 2, 911 50 Trenčin, Slovakia Centre for analysis of administrative-political processes and institutions (CAAPPI) University of Ljubljana, Faculty of social sciences Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Alma Mater Europaea - European Center Maribor (AMEU-ECM) Gosposka ulica 1, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia DESIGN CAAPPI, Ljubljana. Journal of Comparative Politics is published twice a year, in January and July. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION AS THE INSTRUMENT OF CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION IN EAST ASIA Ladislav CABADA and Šárka WAISOVÁ ............................................................................................................................................................................ 18 DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN POLAND. BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM AND CIVIC LOCALISM Agnieszka TURSKA-KAWA and Waldemar WOJTASIK ............................................................................................................................................................................ 30 DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY IN THE ECE AND THE CORE-PERIPHERY DIVIDE: RULE OF LAW CONFLICTS OF POLAND AND HUNGARY WITH THE EU Attila ÁGH ............................................................................................................................................................................ 49 OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: EAST EUROPEAN LESSONS FOR HONG KONG Kenneth KA-LOK CHAN ............................................................................................................................................................................ 65 EUROPE: HELL OR PARADISE? AN OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN LAW AND CASE LAW Noemia BESSA VILELA and Boštjan BREZOVNIK ............................................................................................................................................................................ 83 COPING WITH DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES: CASE OF SLOVENIAN LOCAL COMMUNITIES Simona KUKOVIČ ............................................................................................................................................................................ PARTICIPATE For further information on submissions, please consult the guidelines at http://www.jofcp.org. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 4 ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION AS THE INSTRUMENT OF CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION IN EAST ASIA1 Ladislav CABADA and Šárka WAISOVÁ2 ……………………………………………………………………….…………………………………… East Asia is an area with high number of political militarized conflicts, but also with high biodiversity and fast environmental degradation. A decade ago there emerged the idea that environmental cooperation is able to initiate and sustain a dialogue between the parties of a conflict and facilitates conflict transformation and peace building. This article tests on the three case studies from East Asia two hypotheses and asks one question to find out more about the origin and functioning of environmental cooperation in areas of political conflicts. The article shows that environmental cooperation can emerge even during a political conflict, but only at a time when the intensity of the violence is low. The emergence and development of environmental cooperative projects also depends on the support of external actors. We conclude that the intensity of environmental cooperation in conflict-prone areas remains weak even after many years and even when the process is strongly supported by many external actors. Key words: environmental cooperation; environmental peace building; cooperation in conflict areas; South Korea; North Korea; China; Taiwan; Thailand; Cambodia. 1 INTRODUCTION In the 1980s East Asia3 went from being the world´s bloodiest battleground to one of its most peaceful regions, and this era of relative peace has continued. 1 This article is the outcome of the project carried out through the University of West Bohemia (SGS-2016-2032). We are grateful to the university for the support. 2 Ladislav CABADA is associated professor of Comparative Politics at the Metropolitan University in Prague and University of West Bohemia in Pilsen Czech Republic, permanent Visiting Scholar at the National University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary and Co-Editor of Politics in Central Europe. Šárka WAISOVÁ is associated professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and International Chair at the National University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary, and Co-Editor of Politics in Central Europe. 3 East Asia here includes China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 5 While there was a precipitous decline in organized violence in East Asia in the period of 1980-2010, the militarized disputes in the Taiwan Strait, Korean peninsula, the East China Sea, the South China Sea and between Cambodia and Thailand have not been resolved (Tønneson et al 2013). East Asia is not only the region with persisting number of military interstate conflicts but also with high biodiversity and high number of biodiversity hotspots. East Asia has great biodiversity importance and richness, ranking with South America as the richest place on Earth for variety of living. Of the world´s 25 recognized biodiversity hotspots, sever are in East Asia, covering the entire ASEAN region, parts of India, Sri Lanka, southwest China and the eastern Himalayan countries of Nepal, Bhutan and India. Biodiversity hotspots are defined as areas featuring exceptional concentrations of endemic species and experiencing exceptional loss of habitat (Myers et al 2000; Hanson 2009). But East Asia is also the region with serious environmental problems. High population density combined with high rate of consumption of natural resources and the pressure