Dealing with the communist past: Its role in the disintegration of the Czech Civic Forum and in the emergence of the Civic Democratic Party

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubomír Kopeček
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
Civic Forum ◽  
Do So

The end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989 has opened the thorny question of how to deal with the communist legacy. This paper focuses on important aspects of decommunization at the beginning of the 1990s and analyzes the role they played in the disintegration of the Civic Forum and in the emergence of the Civic Democratic Party. The paper shows that the decommunization agenda gradually became a significant divisive factor within the Civic Forum and served as one of the key issues through which the Civic Democratic Party defined itself. It also provided an opportunity for politicians skilled enough to grasp this issue to do so and to incorporate it into their wider political agendas.

scholarly journals Consequences of the Totalitarian past on the Albanian Post- Communist Society

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Matilda Pajo
Keyword(s):  
Annual Reports ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Qualitative Nature ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
Hybrid Regime ◽  
Freedom House

Enver Hoxha's communist regime lasted 45 years, leaving unstudied long-term consequences in the Albanian society. Still today, after 26 years of transition, the path of democratization of Albania remains unclear. Albania has been for more than four decades under one of the most isolated communist regimes in Europe. The transition from a communist totalitarian state to a democratic state is still incomplete even after 26 years since the fall of communism. Annual reports carried out by Freedom House noted a delay in the processes of democratic governance in Albania. In these reports, since 2007, based on the democratic indicators, Albania is defined as e hybrid regime. The aim of this paper is to argue that one of the reasons delaying democratization is the missing detachment, or the non-separation from the mentality of communist past. The methodology of this paper is qualitative nature, based on the international philosophical and political science literature. Also the author has studied countries, who have had similar experiences of totalitarian regimes and who later embraced democracy. This paper attempts to explain, that the bad governance is linked to the anti-democratic character of governance in Albania. Throughout Eastern Europe, Albania was the most radical, on the adaptation of Stalinist totalitarianism type, and nevertheless still today, is not seeking punishment of crimes of communism and has not implemented a law on lustration. The past can become an obstacle to the future when is not studied, recognized and confronted with.

scholarly journals “Niepodległość” Liberal Democratic Party

Sowiniec ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (46) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Marcin Kluzik
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Independent Country

The Liberal Democratic party “Niepodległość”/“Independence” was a radically anti-communist party and its aim was to overthrow the communist regime and make Poland an independent country, for the party had no doubt that other elements of its agenda could be realised only after Poland achieved independence. Its uncompromising anti-communist stance made the party reject the agreements made at the Round Table. The LDPN advocated political and economic liberalism, combining it with an attachment to a conservative and Christian canon of values.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
William L. Barney
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Political Force ◽  
National Convention ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
Do So ◽  
Abolition Movement

Sectional tensions over slavery persisted since the writing of the Constitution and exploded into secession and the Civil War in 1860–61. The resistance to slavery of African Americans, both enslaved and free, prodded the consciences of enough Northern whites to produce the abolition movement and emerge as a political force in its own right. Southerners recognized that the morality of slavery was at the heart of the issue and sought in vain to make Northerners acknowledge slavery as a morally just institution and allow it to grow and expand. The Northern refusal to do so fueled the rise of the Republican Party and split the Democratic Party at its national convention in the spring of 1860, setting the stage for the election of Abraham Lincoln and the outbreak of the secession crisis.

Childhood images and visual representations: Romanian post-communist cultural configuration of the past

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-260
Author(s):  
Simona Mitroiu
Keyword(s):  
Visual Memory ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Communist Past

The literary and visual representations of the Romanian recent past have helped recollect the world of childhood and its contextual frames, contributing to the process of coming to terms with the communist past. Focusing on the treatment of childhood memories in the post-communist Romanian cultural productions, the research reveals the changes under-gone by the childhood images and representations in the visual memory discourse. The image of the pioneer children offering flowers to the communist leaders was well instilled in the Romanian collective memory by the communist documentaries picturing the Romani-an life during the “Golden Age.” What followed was the image of the abandoned children: from the Romanian orphanages, immediately after the 1989 political regime change, to their immigrant parents, especially during the transitional years. Are these images recol-lected by the New Romanian Cinema productions and are they correlated with the abun-dant literary autobiographical works? The present study focuses on this topic of child images and childhood memories in connection with the remembrance of the communist past, pursuing an in-depth analysis of these post-communist Romanian cultural produc-tions. It argues that despite the insufficient interest in exploring the topic of childhood during the communist regime and the lack of significant collaborative projects reuniting literary figures and cinema directors, the cinema representations of childhood can consid-erably widen the narratives of the past, suggesting new directions in the post-communist exploration of the alternative memories of the past.

Weak Radiator Design Using Dimples

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Nan Cheng ◽  
Chih Chun Cheng ◽  
Gary H. Koopmann
Keyword(s):  
Vibration Mode ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Vibration Modes ◽  
The Finite Element Method ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Beam Surface ◽  
Specific Frequency ◽  
Radiated Sound ◽  
Radiated Sound Power ◽  
Do So

A design method for achieving minimum sound radiation from a beam is presented. The strategy is to form a series of cylindrical dimples on the beam surface in order to make one or more vibration modes of this dimpled beam have the same shape as the weak modes. Consequently, the dimpled beam behaves as a weak radiator when one or more vibration modes are excited. Instead of minimizing the radiated sound power at a specific frequency or in a bandwidth, the objective is to maximize the modal assurance coefficient (MAC) which quantifies resemblance between the vibration mode of a dimpled beam and a weak mode. To perform this strategy, two key issues are addressed in this paper. The first is to determine the so-called weak mode of a beam. And the second is how to determine the required dimple size and the dimple location on this beam so that the dimpled beam may have vibration modes resembled to the weak modes. A methodology to do so based on the finite element method and the mode assurance criteria is proposed. Results show that the radiation efficiency of the dimpled beam after optimization using MAC as the objective is generally lower than the uniform beam. However, the effectiveness of this strategy depends on how close in shape between the vibration mode of the dimpled beam and the designated weak mode.

scholarly journals Embodying Gender, Age, Ethnicity and Power in ‘the Field’: Reflections on Dress and the Presentation of the Self in Research with Older Pakistani Muslims

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Zubair ◽  
Wendy Martin ◽  
Christina Victor
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
Embodied Self ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Do So

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in researching people growing older in the South Asian ethnic minority communities in the UK. However, these populations have received comparatively little attention in wide-ranging discussions on culturally and socially appropriate research methodologies. In this paper, we draw on the experiences of a young female Pakistani Muslim researcher researching older Pakistani Muslim women and men, to explore the significance of gender, age and ethnicity to fieldwork processes and ‘field’ relationships. In particular, we highlight the significance of dress and specific presentations of the embodied self within the research process. We do so by focusing upon three key issues: (1) Insider/Outsider boundaries and how these boundaries are continuously and actively negotiated in the field through the use of dress and specific presentations of the embodied ‘self’; (2) The links between gender, age and space - more specifically, how the researcher's use of traditional Pakistani dress, and her differing research relationships, are influenced by the older Pakistani Muslim participants’ gendered use of public and private space; and (3) The opportunities and vulnerabilities experienced by the researcher in the field, reinforced by her use (or otherwise) of the traditional and feminine Pakistani Muslim dress. Our research therefore highlights the role of different presentations of the embodied ‘self’ to fieldwork processes and relationships, and illustrates how age, gender and status intersect to produce fluctuating insider/outsider boundaries as well as different opportunities and experiences of power and vulnerability within research relationships.

scholarly journals Ivan the Terrible and Russian Feudalism in the Works of Hungarian and Russian Historians of the Soviet Era

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Ivan The Terrible ◽  
Soviet Historiography

In his book An Attempt at Microhistoriography (Rus. Опыт микроисториографии), Gyula Szvák, an outstanding Hungarian specialist in Russian history, republishes seven of his earlier articles and presents a previously unpublished eighth article on the Soviet historiography of the key issues of 16th-century Russian history. The articles consider Ivan Peresvetov’s works, reforms and oprichnina between the middle and second half of the sixteenth century; also, they compare the reigns and personalities of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. Additionally, the author explores the personal stories of his mentors, Russian historian Ruslan Skrynnikov and Hungarian József Perényi. The book reviewed presents a kind of panorama of two historiographic traditions of studying the Russian Middle Ages in the Soviet Union and Hungary before the collapse of the communist regime there. The author returns to the peculiarities of Russia’s historical development and comprehension of the concept of “Russian feudalism” and reflects on the fate of historians who were engaged in the study of mediaeval Russia under rigid ideological principles.

scholarly journals Constructing a Political Enemy

Intersections ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Hrubeš ◽  
Jiří Navrátil
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
Show Business ◽  
Public Enemy ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
Popular Images ◽  
Communist Countries

The Communist era and its legacy became an important part of Czech (political) culture and identity after 1989. This phenomenon is especially powerful in relation to the meaning making of the communist era after 1989 and the way Czechs are getting over it. Labels such as communist, Bolshevik, normalization, nationalization of property and many others related to the communist era became powerful vehicles for stigmatization and creating a public enemy in almost any sphere, be it political, show business, or public. What makes it especially powerful is that the cultural and historical legacies (understood as deliberately propagated representations of selected fragments of the group’s past), when expressed explicitly, offer models of or for behaviour and thinking. In other words, public memory is often one of the constitutive factors of contentious and politically motivated mobilizations undertaken by different actors like political parties, social movements or individual agents when seeking public support or legitimacy, or just aiming to achieve their goals. In post-communist countries these actors often strive to mobilize participants, supporters or even opponents using legacies of the Communist past. In this text we seek to uncover how various situations, events or people are constructed as public enemies by using the communist legacy. In particular, we ask the following questions: How is anti-communist framing constructed and how does anti-communist framing resonate with popular images and understanding of Communism, the Communist era in the Czech Republic and related matters? We analyse anti-communist framing (i.e. directly or indirectly identify the situation, adversaries, institutions or activities with the Communist regime) and via constructing metaphors provide readers with deep understanding of how particular Communist legacies in specific contexts create public enemies who lose sympathy and support from the public.

scholarly journals Environmental Management Accounting: The State Of Play

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Desiree Cullen ◽  
Catherine Whelan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
The State ◽  
External Cost ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Cost Approach ◽  
Private Cost ◽  
Environmental Management Accounting ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Do So

Environmental management accounting (EMA) is characterised by a lack of standard taxonomy. Minimal consensus, either in terminology or definitions, has been a feature of the literature. This paper seeks to not only provide a structured overview of the extant literature on environmental management accounting, but to do so in a manner that allows the reader to better understand the key issues and concerns. The private cost approach suggests that corporate environmental outcomes should be part of the characteristic management accounting undertaken by a firm. Conversely, the external cost approach suggests that only by recognizing externalities or the non-market costs imposed on society by firms, will management accounting deliver the required level of environmental outcomes.

scholarly journals Relationship between moral responsibility for zoonotic pandemics outbreaks and industrial animal farms

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-713
Author(s):  
Josip Guc
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Weakest Link ◽  
Animal Farms ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Livestock Health ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Moral Blame ◽  
Do So

The responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic was first ascribed to persons associated with the Huanan Seafood Market. However, many scientists suggest that this pandemic is actually a consequence of human intrusion into nature. This opens up a whole new perspective for an examination of direct and indirect, individual and collective responsibility concerning this particular pandemic, but also zoonotic pandemics as such. In this context, one of the key issues are the consequences of factory-farming of animals, which contributes to circumstances in which zoonotic pandemics emerge. Moreover, it is part of a larger economic system, global capitalism, whose logic implies certain coercion toward its participants to keep it essentially unchanged and therefore to make sure that livestock health remains ?the weakest link in our global health chain? (FAO). However, even though the precise answer to the issue of moral responsibility for zoonotic pandemics outbreaks in general and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular cannot be given, it is possible to list certain indicators and make a framework helpful in ascribing moral responsibility to certain persons. The paper intends to do so by examining the notion of responsibility and by applying it to the issues mentioned. The results of this analysis show that it is misleading to place moral blame on people involved in actions that directly caused the animal-to-human transmission of a certain virus or on humanity as a whole.

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