Slovenia in crisis: A tale of unfinished democratization in East-Central Europe

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojan Bugaric ◽  
Alenka Kuhelj
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Success Story ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Policy Models ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
East Central European

Slovenia, until recently a “success story” of the transition from communism to democracy and the rule of law, is experiencing its biggest constitutional and political crisis since its independence in 1991. The Slovenian constitutional model is currently facing a simultaneous economic and political crisis. The article argues that there are two principle reasons for this apparent decline of the Slovenian model. First, because of its relatively privileged position vis-a-vis other East Central European countries, Slovenia has been a reluctant reformer, doing very little to actually change its institutional setup from the communist past. Second, when Slovenia implemented reforms, it did it in a very particular way: as an uncritical model-taker of policy models from the West. This mimicry was done in a fairly top down, bureaucratic way, creating institutions without deep enough roots in society, and without necessary trial and error style usually needed for successful evaluation of proposed reforms.

Democratization Processes in East Central Europe: A Theoretical Reconsideration

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Ekiert
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Current Transition ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
East Central European

This article explores various dimensions of the issue of transition to democracy in East Central Europe, focusing on the question of how past experiences shape the process of political change and on the limits of democratization in the region. The first part reviews scholarly debates on the relationship between the political crisis and processes of democratization in the region, arguing that new analytical categories are needed to account for different dimensions of the current transition process. The second part proposes a new framework for analysing changing relations between the party–state and society across time and in different state-socialist societies. The third part examines some recent political developments in countries of the region in order to identify those factors that may contribute to or impede a possibility of the transition to democracy in these countries. It concludes that in all East Central European countries the rapid collapse of party–states and the multidimensional social, political and economic crisis has initiated a parallel process of diminution of power of both the state and civil society, which may significantly endanger the transition to a democratic political order.

Dilemmas of Democratisation from Legal Revolutions to Democratic Constitutionalism?

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Blokker
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Common ◽  
Higher Law ◽  
Public Views

The ideas of the rule of law and constitutionalism have become an intrinsic part of any process of democratisation around the world. This was equally the case in the radical changes that occurred in East-Central Europe (ECE) around the year of 1989. The adherence in the region to a form of “new constitutionalism” has been frequently seen as an indispensable contribution to the processes of democratisation. However, in this too little attention has been paid to the dilemmas, tensions and perverse effects that may emerge in the institutionalisation and practice of new constitutionalism, not least in terms of an enduring tension between constitutionalism as an ordering and stabilising device and democracy as an uncertain and indeterminate process of verification of public views on the common good. The experiences in ECE since 1989 with regard to new constitutionalism are ambiguous. It is undeniable that an emphasis on a higher law with entrenched rights and robust constitutional review has involved important “corrections” of certain outgrowths of democratic politics and in this prevented forms of “tyranny of the majority” or the endangering of the guarantee of universal rights. But it is equally true that new constitutionalism has been adopted at a price, not least with regard to the emergence of more widespread, publicly shared constitutional cultures as well as in terms of underexplored potentials of democratic constitutionalism and endorsement of civic engagement in the region. Democratic dilemmas and perverse effects have emerged in terms of domestic tensions, in particular regarding democratic debilitation, but also stem from tensions with legal orders beyond the national arena.

scholarly journals Od „legalnej rewolucji” do kontrrewolucji. Kryzys konstytucjonalizmu liberalno-demokratycznego w Polsce

2017 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 65-81
Author(s):  
Grażyna Skąpska
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Third ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism

FROM „LEGAL REVOLUTION” TO COUNTERREVOLUTION. CRISIS OF LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTIONALISM IN POLANDThis paper debates the crisis of the rule of law and liberal constitutionalism with regard to processes and events in Poland after the parliamentary elections in 2015. Iwill shortly debate the previous events in Hungary — amodel for actions undertaken in Poland. In the first part this paper debates on the concept of “legal revolutions” which took place in the East Central Europe in 1989. They succeed in the institutionalization of the rule of law and liberal-democratic constitutionalism. The second part of the paper presents the swift, ruthless and brutal destruction of the rule of law. In the third part the “flood” of legal regulations, especially in the domains of economic transactions is shortly presented, and the part four debates cultural contexts of the current counterrevolutions. Here axiological foundations of liberal-democratic constitutionalism and the rule of law are discussed, and the issues of legal hypocrisy and legal nihilism in the context of Eastern European Syndrome are presented.

Book Reviews

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-139
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
European Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Crime And Punishment

Book reviews: Becket, Katherine and Theodore Sasson, The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America (reviewed by Peter Duff); Smart, Carol and Bren Neale, Family Fragments? (reviewed by Alison Diduck); Krygier, Martin, and Adam Czarnota (eds), The Rule of Law After Communism: Problems and Prospects in East-Central Europe (reviewed by Jan Zeilonka); Freedland, Mark and Silvana Sciarra (eds), Public Services and Citizenship in European Law: Public and Labour Law Perspectives (reviewed by Tony Prosser); Bainham, Andrew, Shelley Day Sclater and Martin Richards (eds), What is a Parent? A Socio-Legal Analysis (reviewed by Felicity Kaganas); Carver, Terrell, and Veronique Mottier (Eds), The Politics of Sexuality: Identity, Gender, Citizenship (reviewed by Sharon Cowan)

Building democracy by legal means? The contestation of human rights and constitutionalism in East-Central Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-351
Author(s):  
Paul Blokker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
Transformation Processes

The main argument in the article is that liberal democracy, human rights, and the idea of constitutionalism have remained contested in the transformation processes in East-Central Europe since 1989. The prevalent literature in the legal and political sciences have understood the changes in East-Central Europe since 1989 as a transitional process in which legality, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and human rights became increasingly taken for granted. The liberal-constitutional project did however not find, in fact, widespread adherence. Most conspicuously so in Hungary (since 2010), and also in Poland (since 2015), the post-1989 constitutional-democratic narrative has become an explicit point of reference for conservative ‘counter-constitutional’ projects, which seek to undo some of the key premises of liberal-constitutional democracy. I hence argue that the post-1989 transformations have not ended and continue to be characterized by enduring contestation over constitutionalism, (foundational) norms, and human rights, as well as diverging interpretations of the finalité of the post-communist project of democratic society. A key finding is that the current populist resentment towards post-1989 liberal democratization builds to an important extent on culturally rearticulated legacies of non-liberal and conservative understandings of society.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document