Zsolt Boda

The media and attitudes towards crime and the justice system: A qualitative approach

The role of the media in shaping attitudes towards crime and the justice system has been a heavily researched topic. It has obvious relevance to the procedural justice perspective, in that media representations may have a mediating relationship between the behaviour of institutions of justice and public perceptions of them. Most of these studies have used quantitative methods in order to establish a relationship between attitudes and media consumption. A relationship has been demonstrated on several occasions, but its causal nature has not been proven. However, the difficulty of identifying a direct causal media effect should not lead us to abandon completely the idea that the media have some influence in shaping attitudes towards crime and the justice system. We should look for more sophisticated theories to explain the formation of public opinion and the role of the media in it, and, in addition to the quantitative analysis of statistical data, we should move towards audience research and the use of more qualitative methods. The research reported here used focus group methods to understand how and how much people rely on the media when interpreting issues of crime and evaluating justice institutions.

The failure of business ethics

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the systemic causes of the failure of business ethics (BE) and suggest some possible remedies. The discipline and the movement of BE has at least three decades of history. BE has developed concepts and theories, and provided empirical evidences. However, BE as a movement and as a practice has failed to deliver the expected results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses results from management ethics, moral psychology and corporate governance to analyze the underlying causes of corporate unethical behavior. Findings – The failure of BE is deeply rooted in today’s corporation-ruled business world. BE has failed to realize systemic features of modern business and therefore missed its target. The social, ethical and environmental problems caused by corporations may require a different kind of treatment based on law, politics and social institutions. Originality/value – The paper uses models outside ethics to help business organizations to become more ethical in ...

The Poorer You Are, the More You Trust? The Effect of Inequality and Income on Institutional Trust in East-Central Europe*

Compared to Western Europe, the new democracies of East-Central Europe (ECE) demonstrate substantially lower levels of institutional trust. Because trust in state institutions is an indicator of the public approval and legitimacy of a political system, low trust levels are a cause for concern. The paper addresses a particular aspect of this broad issue by focusing on how country-level wealth and inequality and individual-level economic situation and sociotropic evaluations affect institutional trust in ECE in comparison with Western Europe. A multi-level analysis performed on the 2010 European Social Survey dataset reveals that substantial differences exist between the two sides of the continent. While sociotropic measures show a uniformly strong, positive association with institutional trust, the marginal effect of relative income is positive in Western but negative in East-Central Europe. Moreover, although social inequality is inversely related to institutional trust, four ECE countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia), where relatively low inequality is accompanied by low levels of institutional trust, deviate from the general trend. The paper suggests that the causes of these differences may be attributed to the interplay between specific characteristics of ECE political economies and the strongly egalitarian attitudes of East-Central European citizens.

How perceptions and personal contact matter: The individual-level determinants of trust in police in Hungary

In established democracies perceptions about police effectiveness and procedural fairness are the main individual-level determinants of trust in police. However, very little is known about whether this is also the case in different circumstances. By analysing trust in police in Hungary, in an East Central European context, the paper finds that the same micro-level factors have a similar relationship with trust in police there as in established democracies. Both the perceptions of police performance and fairness are significant contributors to trust as well as individual judgements about the countrys current affairs. However, people attribute different salience to distinct aspects of procedural fairness: Hungarians are sensitive to police corruption, but less so to discriminative police behaviour. Finally, the overall effect of personal contact with the police on trust is negative, but distinguishing those who reported negative personal experiences from those who were satisfied with how the police treated them shows that only bad contacts have a detrimental effect on trust. Our findings suggest that while positive personal experiences with the police do not improve trust judgements, negative ones damage peoples perceptions about the police in virtually every dimension.

Politically Driven Mapping Political and Media Discourses of Penal Populism—The Hungarian Case

Penal populism, advocating severe punishment of criminals, has greatly influenced justice policy measures in Eastern Europe over the last decade. This article takes Hungary as a typical case in the region and based on a recent criminal policy reform it investigates the roots of the penal populist discourse, which legitimizes and supports punitive measures. The research assumes that policy discourses need specific social actors that construct and promote them. Accordingly, the article explores whether the right-wing political parties and the tabloid media have taken a leading role in constructing the discourse of penal populism as a response to public concerns about crime. Content analysis and frame analysis of political communication and media was conducted to identify the discursive positions of major political parties and selected national media sources. The research found that penal populism was dominant in Hungarian political discourse while most of the media, including the tabloid press, have been rather reluctant to adopt punitive tones. The results thus contradict previous findings and offer a more nuanced view on how penal populism is being constructed and promoted in Eastern Europe.

Knowledge, sustainability and corporate strategies in the European energy sector

The paper analyses the apparent position of the European Union and the largest European energy corporations concerning the energy future of Europe and the environmental impacts of their business activities. In contrast to growing public concern at the long-term environmental, economic and social consequences of the reliance on non-renewable energy sources, official words about sustainable development are copious, but ineffective in producing investment in public and private research and development expenditures in the energy sector. Apart from the economic and social problems of the innovation deficit of the European Union, the stagnant and shrinking expenditures also raise ethical dilemmas linked to the questions of intergenerational equity. If we believe that there are technological solutions to our environmental problems we should redefine the corporate responsibility in terms of knowledge production, use and dissemination, too.

Understanding Hungary's Environmental Foreign Policy: The Cases of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Regimes

Mainstreaming adaptation to climate change into official development assistance : challenges to foreign policy integration1. Climate Change in Environmental Foreign Policy: Science, Diplomacy, and Politics Paul G. Harris 2. Australia at a Discursive Crossroad: Climate Change and Foreign Policy Melissa Nursey-Bray 3. Japanese Foreign Policy on Climate Change: Diplomacy and Domestic Politics Hiroshi Ohta 4. Climate Change in Chinese Foreign Policy: Internal and External Responses Paul G. Harris and Hongyuan Yu 5. Turkeys Foreign Policy on Global Atmospheric Commons: Climate Change and Ozone Depletion Semra Cerit Mazlum 6. Understanding Hungarys Environmental Foreign Policy: The Cases of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Regimes Zsolt Boda, Gyorgyi Bela, and Zsuzsanna Pato 7. Climate Change and Danish Foreign Policy: Options for Greater Integration Deborah Murphy, John Drexhage, Oli Brown, Aaron Cosbey, Richard Tarasofsky, and Beverley Darkin 8. Environmental Foreign Policy in France: National Interests, Nuclear Power, and Climate Protection Joseph Szarka 9. Who Decides EU Foreign Policy on Climate Change?: Actors, Alliances, and Institutions Oriol Costa 10. Exceptionalism as Foreign Policy: US Climate Change Policy and an Emerging Norm of Compliance Elizabeth L. Chalecki 11. Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Official Development Assistance: Challenges to Foreign Policy Integration Asa Persson and Richard J.T. Klein

Driven by politics: agenda setting and policy-making in Hungary 2010–2014

ABSTRACT Studies on media and politics generally find an effect of the media on the symbolic policy agenda. Analysing data from the Hungarian Comparative Agendas Project, we demonstrate that this effect is extremely weak in the Hungarian policy-making process. We identified those issues that received greater than average coverage in the media. However, we found that in the majority of cases governmental initiatives or decisions preceded the media coverage – that is, instead of the media agenda pulling the policy agenda, the general logic is the opposite: the media are talking about the policy initiatives of the government. The ambition of the paper is twofold. First, our findings reinforce those claims in the literature that point to the many institutional and political factors affecting the media-politics nexus. This suggests that policy-making might be very different in new(er) democracies. Second, our research analyses the policy-making side of Viktor Orbán’s governance. Changes in the polity, democratic backlash and illiberal tendencies are usually the focus concerning the political changes in Hungary since 2010, but no attention has been devoted to how this type of governance is reflected in policy-making. Our paper seeks to make a contribution also in this respect.

The Power of Tradition: Béres Pharmaceuticals

The chapter analyses Beres Pharmaceuticals, a leading Hungarian company engaged in natural and preventive medicine, comprising a unique trace element supplement product strengthening the immune system of the human body and additional natural medicine developed from it. Beres’ mission is to promote human health by supplying people with natural medicines for their physical and mental well-being. The company definition of success consists not only of financial profitability but also running an ethical operation and safeguarding the well-being of stakeholders. Beres defines its stakeholders in a broad sense: employees, customers, partners and suppliers, competitors, government and regulatory bodies, needy members of society, and the natural environment. The company applies a strict and continuously revised code of ethics, fair and open communication, and ethical training. Beres has been able to prosper because its ethical stance and innovativeness result in loyal employees, suppliers, and customers.

From Ethics to Spirituality: Laszlo Zsolnai on Human Motivations

Laszlo Zsolnai’s oeuvre focuses on the individual: the model of economic actor, human motivations in decision making, and the problem of the modern self. The paper seeks, first, to present Laszlo Zsolnai intellectual journey through which he broadened his views on the relevant motivations of economic actors from ethical to spiritual ones. Second, it analyses the pivotal role behavioral models play in the construction of social sciences showing that any social inquiry involves some degree of normative content. Behavioral models are not merely descriptive, but prescribe a certain view on reality. Therefore ‘transformative sciences’, like business ethics or ecological economic, should devote special attention to the problem of human agency. This is a view, which is not necessarily widely shared, but certainly hold by Laszlo Zsolnai.