The 5 Ws of Democracy Protests

Author(s):  
Dawn Brancati

Recent protests in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as protests a decade earlier in East Central Europe, have peaked public interest while raising concerns about the potential for democracy protests to catalyze major reforms in governance. Although the number of protests that occurred in these periods was remarkable, democracy protests are not a new phenomena, but rather have come and gone throughout history. In some cases, the potential of these protests has been realized and significant reforms have resulted, while in others, the protests have been repressed and hopes of a more democratic future have been crushed. To shed light on these issues, the five Ws of democracy protests—namely what are democracy protests, who organizes and participates in these protests, when and where are democracy protests more likely to emerge, and why do these protests matter—are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 324-340
Author(s):  
Krisztina Rábai

This study is based on the analysis of the paper and the text of royal and princely accounts in which scribes registered the everyday incomes and expenditures of four Jagiellonian courts, located in different parts of East-Central Europe around the turn of the 15th and 16th-century. The period covers the establishment and the very first years of paper mills in Silesia and the Polish Kingdom. Regarding the lack of archival sources preserving the foundation and running of these mills, the cradles of paper-making in East-Central Europe, one should use many different and quite laconic written sources to shed light upon these revolutionary years. Although accounts could preserve mentions of purchasing, trading and using paper, in most cases the textual information is not adequate to reconstruct a detailed and clear image of paper producing; researchers should examine the medium of writing - the paper - itself. Instead of the investigation of single sheets, folded papers, small notebooks and bound books such as accounts proved to be more useful. One can compare the sheets of the volumes and find those traces which lead to the paper mills, the places of their origin. Through the detailed examination of one especially complex and interesting ledger from the courts of Prince Sigismund, the author attempts to demonstrate the opportunities lay in watermark studies. Furthermore, the article purposes to reflect on the huge hiatus clearly perceptible on the field of watermark research and paper history in East-Central Europe and the necessity of developing a database of watermarks reflecting on the history of paper-making in this region. 


Author(s):  
Jacek Wieclawski

This article discusses the problems of the sub-regional cooperation in East-Central Europe. It formulates the general conclusions and examines the specific case of the Visegrad Group as the most advanced example of this cooperation. The article identifies the integrating and disintegrating tendencies that have so far accompanied the sub-regional dialogue in East-Central Europe. Yet it claims that the disintegrating impulses prevail over the integrating impulses. EastCentral Europe remains diversified and it has not developed a single platform of the sub-regional dialogue. The common experience of the communist period gives way to the growing difference of the sub-regional interests and the ability of the East-Central European members to coordinate their positions in the European Union is limited. The Visegrad Group is no exception in this regard despite its rich agenda of social and cultural contacts. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict confirms a deep divergence of interests among the Visegrad states that seems more important for the future of the Visegrad cooperation than the recent attempts to mark the Visegrad unity in the European refugee crisis. Finally, the Ukrainian crisis and the strengthening of the NATO’s “Eastern flank” may contribute to some new ideas of the sub-regional cooperation in East-Central Europe, to include the Polish-Baltic rapprochement or the closer dialogue between Poland and Romania. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v10i1.251  


Author(s):  
Balázs Trencsényi ◽  
Michal Kopeček ◽  
Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič ◽  
Maria Falina ◽  
Mónika Baár ◽  
...  

The interwar radicalization of politics in East Central Europe was linked to the proliferation of a discourse of crisis. Symptoms of crisis could be localized in certain social groups, institutions, and social relations, such as the generational cleavage. Since the topos of crisis was not bound to any particular ideology, the very same discourse was used by liberal and leftist intellectuals as well. Nevertheless, the most plausible ideological framework offering a way out of the crisis seemed to be the “conservative revolution,” promising to restore the continuity of traditions that had been interrupted by the breakthrough of modernity. This led to the proliferation of “national metaphysics,” defining the specificity of the respective nation with ontological categories. Another face of this “conservative revolution” was the politicization of religion, linked to the renewed interest in myth and popular religiosity. At the same time, there was also a conservative anti-totalitarian stance and, in a few cases, a left-wing reorientation of certain religious subcultures.


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