The Cyprus Review invites submissions for a Special Section on

The State and Organised Social Groups in the Republic of Cyprus

The political and legal aspects of Cypriot institutions rarely utilise a sociological imagination that places State and administrative structures opposite or in relation to organised social groups and more broadly civil society actors, whether trade unions, professional organisations, social movements, networks, or campaigns. It is thus unsurprising that there is meager research on the political and legal aspects of State and administrative linkage to and interaction with social politics. How do social groups approach the State and what strategies do they craft to oppose it, utilise its structures and services, complement or influence it? What institutional response does collective action outside the State evoke by State and government institutions themselves?

In the Eastonian tradition, every democracy is an input-output system and thus institutional outcomes reflect either directly or indirectly the pressures on political and bureaucratic elites from society at large. Fleshing out the interactions or lack thereof in the processes between input and output can help draw conclusions about responsiveness, accountability, transparency, equality of access and the broader pathologies, historical inertia or openings in public governance. Overall, a key piece of information about democracy for social scientists is how hard the shell of formal governance is vis-a -vis organised society. These are important questions both at the time of another impending economic crisis, set off by the COVID-19 pandemic, and for Cypriot democracy in particular, which has been undergoing a legitimacy crisis in terms of high abstention, low trust in institutions, a generalised anti-politics sentiment, and corruption scandals.

This Special Section of The Cyprus Review will focus on The State and Organised Social Groups in the Republic of Cyprus. The issue intends to serve as a platform for inter-disciplinary studies in the domain of institutions and the nature, quality and challenges of contemporary democracy in Cyprus. We encourage authors to contribute to this effort through interrogating various aspects of State-society relations, with focus on the interaction between political institutions or their bureaucracies on the one side and organised social actors that mobilise for particular beliefs or interests on the other side. At core, lies a key theme with four dimensions: the extent, ways, prospects, and limitations in the interaction between State and organised society.

We especially encourage original proposals on one or more of the following topics:

Trade unions, sectional interests and the Cypriot State

The State and value groups in Cyprus

The State and emerging social movements

Political and legal parameters of lobbying in Cyprus

Local government structures and social groups

Parties as linkage between social groups and the State

Social group strategies towards the State

The social roots of politicians in Cyprus

State-society relations and crises

Organised group experiences with public administration

This is not an exclusive list. Papers can research related aspects of State-society relations in the Republic of Cyprus and can be contemporary or historical in nature. All papers will be focused on Cyprus, so as to enhance Cyprological knowledge, but can be comparative in perspective.

Submission Instructions

• Authors should consult the Review's guidelines for submission, which can be found at: http://cyprusreview.org/index.php/cr/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.
• Papers should describe the research question, locate Cyprus in theoretical and empirical debates on their subject and outline the methodology of the study.
• For specific academic enquiries, please contact The Cyprus Review Editorial Team via [email protected].
• Interested scholars should send their papers to the email address [email protected] or submit their articles through our online platform available at the Review's web page, not later than 1 February 2022.
• All email submissions should be identified in the subject line with the heading CR S-OSG.