Demokracja w Serbii i Chorwacji w XXI wieku: w koleinach historii?

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-319
Author(s):  
Tomasz Stryjek

The author shows the contemporary political regime in Serbia, focusing on the role of the president and the party system. He traces Serbia's evolution in the last decade from non-consolidated democracy to hybrid regime or even non-consolidated authoritarianism from the historical experiences that shaped her political culture. He identifies the sources of autocratism and monism in her state, church and intellectual history. He compares Serbia with Croatia, which for twenty years is a non-consolidated democracy. The article shows that Serbian and Croatian historical pre-1991 cultural and political traditions influenced the perceptions of democracy and “strong leaders” rules of their contemporary inhabitants no less than experience from the transformation period.

2015 ◽  
pp. 68-90
Author(s):  
L. S. Okuneva

In the article are considered criteria and possibilities of comparative analysis of the processes of political modernization of Brazil and Russia that unfolded there at the turn of the 1980s-1990s. The article deals with the features of the formation of civil society and political culture on the stage of a radical transformation of political structures in both countries (party system, the role of political leadership, etc.). Also the article investigates character of the differences in the development of the both countries at the beginning of the XXI century.


2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-773
Author(s):  
R. S. ALEXANDER

Study of French political history for the period of 1789 to 1851 is exceedingly complex. Not only must one possess knowledge of a succession of regimes (with their varying constitutions, institutions, laws, and conventions), one must also grasp the essentials of political traditions such as royalism, republicanism, and liberalism, all of which altered over time, and familiarize oneself with a plethora of groups or sub groups, such as Montagnards and Girondins, authoritarian and Revolutionary Bonapartists, moderate and ultra royalists, that often adjusted their beliefs and positions according to circumstance. Matters become further complicated when one takes foreign relations into account, assessing the impact of France abroad or the role of foreign relations in shaping French domestic politics.


Author(s):  
Timur Gimadeev

The article deals with the history of celebrating the Liberation Day in Czechoslovakia organised by the state. Various aspects of the history of the holiday have been considered with the extensive use of audiovisual documents (materials from Czechoslovak newsreels and TV archives), which allowed for a detailed analysis of the propaganda representation of the holiday. As a result, it has been possible to identify the main stages of the historical evolution of the celebrations of Liberation Day, to discover the close interdependence between these stages and the country’s political development. The establishment of the holiday itself — its concept and the military parade as the main ritual — took place in the first post-war years, simultaneously with the consolidation of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Later, until the end of the 1960s, the celebrations gradually evolved along the political regime, acquiring new ritual forms (ceremonial meetings, and “guards of memory”). In 1968, at the same time as there was an attempt to rethink the entire socialist regime and the historical experience connected with it, an attempt was made to reconstruct Liberation Day. However, political “normalisation” led to the normalisation of the celebration itself, which played an important role in legitimising the Soviet presence in the country. At this stage, the role of ceremonial meetings and “guards of memory” increased, while inventions released in time for 9 May appeared and “May TV” was specially produced. The fall of the Communist regime in 1989 led to the fall of the concept of Liberation Day on 9 May, resulting in changes of the title, date and paradigm of the holiday, which became Victory Day and has been since celebrated on 8 May.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-202

The article advances a hypothesis about the composition of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays. Specialists in the intellectual history of the Renaissance have long considered the relationship among Montaigne’s thematically heterogeneous thoughts, which unfold unpredictably and often seen to contradict each other. The waywardness of those reflections over the years was a way for Montaigne to construct a self-portrait. Spontaneity of thought is the essence of the person depicted and an experimental literary technique that was unprecedented in its time and has still not been surpassed. Montaigne often writes about freedom of reflection and regards it as an extremely important topic. There have been many attempts to interpret the haphazardness of the Essays as the guiding principle in their composition. According to one such interpretation, the spontaneous digressions and readiness to take up very different philosophical notions is a form of of varietas and distinguo, which Montaigne understood in the context of Renaissance philosophy. Another interpretation argues that the Essays employ the rhetorical techniques of Renaissance legal commentary. A third opinion regards the Essays as an example of sprezzatura, a calculated negligence that calls attention to the aesthetic character of Montaigne’s writing. The author of the article argues for a different interpretation that is based on the concept of idleness to which Montaigne assigned great significance. He had a keen appreciation of the role of otium in the culture of ancient Rome and regarded leisure as an inner spiritual quest for self-knowledge. According to Montaigne, idleness permits self-directedness, and it is an ideal form in which to practice the freedom of thought that brings about consistency in writing, living and reality, in all of which Montaigne finds one general property - complete inconstancy. Socratic self-knowledge, a skepticism derived from Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus, and a rejection of the conventions of traditional rhetoric that was similar to Seneca’s critique of it were all brought to bear on the concept of idleness and made Montaigne’s intellectual and literary experimentation in the Essays possible.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Damir Kapidžić ◽  
Olivera Komar

Abstract This article examines the role of ethnicity and ethnic parties as stabilizing factors in Southeast European party systems. It compares two ethnically divided countries in Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic identities that form the political cleavage are firm, and Montenegro, where they are malleable. Theoretically, it addresses the debate between scholars who either find stability or instability in East European post-communist party systems. The article traces the role of ethnicity in the formation and development of electoral contests and compares the two cases by utilizing measures of block volatility, based on analysis of official electoral data. We argue that party systems in ethnically diverse countries are stable at the subsystems level, but unstable within them. In BiH, firm ethnic identity stabilizes the party system by limiting competition between blocks, leading to closure. Malleable ethnic identity in Montenegro opens competition to non-ethnic parties seeking to bridge ethnic divisions, leading to more instability. We find that party system dynamics in ethnically divided new democracies depend on identity rigidity and cleavage salience, in addition to levels of heterogeneity.


2020 ◽  
pp. 147892992091294
Author(s):  
Berna Öney

The popular movements in 2011 led to many regime changes that resulted in amended or new constitutions in the Middle East and North Africa region. The constitutional debates concentrated mainly on the functions of the constitutions in authoritarian regimes, constitution-making processes, and the role of Islam during and after the uprisings. However, no research has analyzed the ideological dimensionality of the Middle Eastern and North African constitutions. By analyzing 19 newly enacted, drafted, and amended constitutions before and after the popular movements in the region, this article shows that the single ideological dimension in the constitutions can be defined by the openness of a state for liberal and modern values. This ideological dimension encompasses all the regional political debates on the political regime dynamics, the inclusion of rights and liberties, and the role of Islam. Besides offering an alternative typology for the constitutions in the region, this article also provides evidence for the beginning of the fourth phase of Islamic constitutionalism that merges the ideas of rule of law, which originates from democratic notions, and Islamic norms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gerardo Serra ◽  
Morten Jerven

Abstract This article reconstructs the controversies following the release of the figures from Nigeria's 1963 population census. As the basis for the allocation of seats in the federal parliament and for the distribution of resources, the census is a valuable entry point into postcolonial Nigeria's political culture. After presenting an overview of how the Africanist literature has conceptualized the politics of population counting, the article analyses the role of the press in constructing the meaning and implications of the 1963 count. In contrast with the literature's emphasis on identification, categorization, and enumeration, our focus is on how the census results informed a broader range of visual and textual narratives. It is argued that analysing the multiple ways in which demographic sources shape debates about trust, identity, and the state in the public sphere results in a richer understanding of the politics of counting people and narrows the gap between demographic and cultural history.


1987 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

THE PORTUGUESE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF 19 JULY 1987 initiated a profound change in the Portuguese party system and in the system of government. From 1974 onwards, Portugal had moved peacefully towards a democratic political system, enshrined in the 1976 Constitution. This evolution lasted about eight years and culminated in the revision of the Constitution in 1982. From 1982 onwards the present political regime has been a democratic one, coexisting with a capitalist economic regime attenuated by state monopoly in key sectors and by public companies which were nationalized between 1974 and 1976. It is also since 1982 that the system of government has been semi-presidential. There is pure representativeness as referendums do not exist at national level and have never been regulated at local level. But the government is semi-presidential in the sense that, owing to French influence, it attempts to balance Parliament with the election of the President of the Republic by direct and universal suffrage.


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