The Involvement of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Issues of Minority Protection

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-395
Author(s):  
Aristoteles Constantinides
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Internal Affairs ◽  
Political Character ◽  
Positive Results

The close relationship between security and minority protection is more than ever before manifest in today's (eastern) Europe. The adoption of far-reaching substantive commitments in the fields of the OSCE, and its increasing intrusion upon traditionally internal affairs of states, constitutes a positive framework for minority protection. A constructive combination of implementation mechanisms, preventive diplomacy instruments, and dispute-settlement efforts has produced positive results. Primarily concerned with the maintenance of security in Europe, the OSCE involves itself in minority issues, subject to the (dis)advantages of its political character. Despite its inherent weaknesses, the OSCE system has already contributed to the protection of minorities in Eastern Europe in various ways during the political transition in the former communist states, and it is prepared to continue, especially in the absence of other more effective systems.

Revolution from Within: Institutional Analysis, Transitions from Authoritarianism, and the Case of Hungary

1996 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick H. O'Neil
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Compact ◽  
Specific Outcome ◽  
New System ◽  
Party Congress

The Hungarian transition from socialism stands out from other examples of political change in the region, in that the ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) suffered an erosion of political power generated largely from within the party itself. The study shows how the Communist Party, after its destruction in the revolution of 1956, sought to institutionalize its rule through a course of limited liberalization and the broad co-optation of the populace. This policy helped create a tacit social compact with society, particularly in co-opting younger intellectuals who identified with the goals of reform socialism. However, the party eventually marginalized this group, creating an internal party opposition that supported socialism but opposed the MSZMP. Consequently, when the limits of Hungarian reform socialism became evident in the mid-1980s, rank-and-file intellectuals within the party began to mobilize against the party hierarchy, seeking to transform the MSZMP into a democratic socialist party. These “reform circles,” drawing their strength primarily from the countryside, spread to all parts of the party and helped undermine central party power and expand the political space for opposition groups to organize. Eventually, the reform circles were able to force an early party congress in which the MSZMP was transformed into a Western-style socialist party prior to open elections in 1990.The case is significant in that it indicates that the forms of transition in Eastern Europe were not simply the specific outcome of elite interaction. Rather, they were shaped in large part by the patterns of socialist institutionalization found in each country. Therefore, studies of political transition can be enriched with an explicit focus on the institutional characteristics of each case, linking the forms of transitions and their posttransition legacies to the institutional matrix from which they emerged. In short, the study argues that the way in which an autocratic order perpetuates itself affects the manner in which that system declines and the shape of the new system that takes its place.

Migration and democracy in central and eastern Europe

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James Tonelli
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Impact

Amidst the political changes that swept through central and eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the right to migrate was synonymous in the minds of many with the establishment of democracy. Although the political transition of the 1990s was preceded in some countries by a relaxation of their strict exit regimes, these were only minor measures in comparison with the profound changes to the system of population control ushered in by the political transition to democracy. A mosaic of migration patterns (ethnically based migrations, return migration, labour migration, transit migration) gathered pace during the 1990s throughout the vast region of the former Soviet bloc. As conflict and war broke out in different areas, notably in the Caucasus and south-east Europe, these migratory movements were inflated by huge numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons. The newly independent states underpinned their political transition towards democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights through membership of the Council of Europe and ratification of international conventions which included important guarantees for the rights and protection of migrants and their families. In May 2004, eight of these countries will join the European Union and after a transitional period become integral parts of the internal labour market with their populations enjoying the full freedom of movement rights of EC law. This article outlines the major migration trends in central and eastern Europe since the extension of democracy across the continent, highlights different aspects of labour migration in the region, including the impact of EU enlargement, and refers to some integration issues. This description is preceded by a series of brief historical, political and legal perspectives.

Some Thoughts on Civil Society in Eastern Europe and the Lockean Contractarian Approach

1987 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Rau
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Special Form ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Character ◽  
Totalitarian State

Neither the concept of the totalitarian system nor the newly worked-out notion of ‘socialist civil society’ can express the social and political phenomenon of the rise and growth of independent groups and movements in Eastern Europe. Rather, it is suggested here that the Lockean contractarian approach should be used. This embraces mutually interacting ethical, empirical and analytic arguments which would take into consideration the state, the independent groups organized outside it, and the relationships between them. The utility of the model of the totalitarian state in understanding the origin of independent groups is discussed here. Lockean multidimensional individualism is suggested as a category expressing the political character of these groups, and Lockean teaching on absolute monarchy—a special form of the state of nature—is advanced as the means for analysing the relationship between these groups and the state of the Soviet type.

Here there Be Tygers: Profit, Non-profit, and Loss in the Age of Disintermediation

1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Scholarly Publishing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Quality Information ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
High Quality Information ◽  
Europe De L’Est ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: Scholarly publishing and access to high-quality information may in fact be threatened, rather than improved, by the revolution in communications, particularly in a fully commercial Internet. The effects of the political revolution in Eastern Europe on scholarship and quality publishing are used as a touchstone of the dangers that occur when naïve revolutionaries make swift changes without fully recognizing the impact upon delicately balanced social institutions such as non-profit organizations. Résumé: La révolution en communications, particulièrement en ce qui regarde un Internet commercialisé, plutôt que d'améliorer l'édition savante et l'accès à de l'information de haute qualité, pourrait en fait poser une menace pour ceux-ci. Cet article examine comment la révolution politique en Europe de l'Est a influé sur la recherche et l'édition de qualité. Il utilise cet exemple pour examiner les dangers que peuvent courir certains révolutionnaires naïfs quand ils instaurent des changements rapides san songer à leur impact sur des institutions sociales à équilibre délicat comme les organisations à but non lucratif.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
State Of Israel

This chapter examines the lack of continuous tradition of the art of the theatre in the history of Jewish culture. Theatre as art and institution was forbidden for Jews during most of their history, and although there were plays written in different times and places during the past centuries, no tradition of theatre evolved in Jewish culture until the middle of the nineteenth century. In view of this absence, the author discusses the genesis of Jewish theatre in Eastern Europe and in Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel) since the late nineteenth century, encouraged by the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the rebirth of Hebrew as a language of everyday life. Finally, the chapter traces the development of parallel strands of theatre that preceded the Israeli theatre and shadowed the emergence of the political infrastructure of the future State of Israel.

Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Brill
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Character

Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life studies Aristotle’s understanding of the political character of human intimacy via an examination of the zoological frame informing his political theory. It argues that the concept of shared life, i.e. the forms of intimacy that arise from the possession of logos and the capacity for choice, is central to human political partnership, and serves to locate that life within the broader context of living beings as such, where it emerges as an intensification of animal sociality. As such it challenges a long-standing approach to the role of the animal in Aristotle’s thought, and to the recent reception of Aristotle’s thinking about the political valence of life and living beings.

Bulgarian Turkish Emigration and Return

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darina Vasileva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Lasting Effect ◽  
History Of

The history of the emigration of Bulgarian Muslim Turks to Turkey is more than a century old. The violation of the human rights of ethnic Turks by the totalitarian regime during the 1980s resulted in the most massive and unpredictable migration wave ever seen in that history. This article examines the complexity of factors and motivations of the 1989 emigration which included almost half of the ethnic Turks living in Bulgaria and constituting until that time 9 percent of the total population. The author considers the strong and long-lasting effect of this emigration—followed by the subsequent return of half of the emigrants after the fall of the regime—both on Bulgaria's economy and on the political life of the society. The article aims also at providing a better understanding of the character of ethnic conflicts in posttotalitarian Eastern Europe.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document