Weak democracies under pressure, 1918 and 1989 in comparison

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Dieter Segert
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
The West ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Careful Handling ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Economic Transitions

The article is concerned with the recent crisis of representative democracy. It analyses especially the features and conditions of the democratic decay in East-Central Europe. The method of the study consists mainly in a thorough interpretation of different data from the field of social, political and economic transitions during and after the 1990s. Additionally, the article examines the fate of democratic regimes in the interwar period and the causes of its weakness. The population’s expectations towards political transformations was a major driving factor of politics in both periods of time in East-Central Europe. The article tries to answer the question how to deal successfully with the democracy crises in the region. The stabilisation of democratic polities would need both a strong social policy on the basis of an economic catch up with the West and a careful handling of the fears of “globalization”.

Theories of Language

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Fellerer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Implications

This chapter identifies key notions about the nature and workings of language and their wider political implications in Europe from around 1789 to the first decades of the nineteenth century. There are at least three formations, aesthetic and philosophical, linguistic, and political. Even though treated under separate headings for ease of exposition, they are meant to meet in this introduction in response to more granular surveys. The political dimension in particular tends to be left to historians or to philologists who deal with that part of the continent where it first gained real prominence: East and East Central Europe. Thus, after the first two sections on aspects of philosophy and early linguistics, where the focus is on Germany with France and England, the third section on language and nation moves eastwards to the Slavonic-speaking lands, to finally return back, albeit very briefly, to the West. The main purpose of this survey to provide introduction and guidance.

The Re-emergence of Family-Based Enterprises in East Central Europe: What Can Be Learned from Family Business Research in the Western World?

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rik Donckels ◽  
Johan Lambrecht
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Future Success ◽  
New Business ◽  
Family Based

We examine to what extent lessons can be drawn from the experiences of family businesses in the Western world toward the re-emerging entrepreneurship in east central Europe. We conclude that often, as it does in the West, the family forms the basis for the creation of new business initiatives in this region. It is evident that research concerning family businesses in the West can lead to particularly relevant insights. The three characteristics that almost always affect every family business constitute the cornerstone for the future success.

scholarly journals Central Europe between the West and East: Independent Region, the Bridge, Buffer Zone or ‘eternal’ Semi-Periphery?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-432
Author(s):  
Ladislav Cabada
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
The West ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe development of new East-Central European (ECE) democracies after 1989 might be separated into two different parts regarding the external, but in many ways also the internal evaluation. While the first fifteen years, crowned the ‘big bang’ EU-enlargement in 2004, might be evaluated generally as a successful story of socialisation into the Western structures, i.e. democratisation and Europeanisation, the next fifteen years are often evaluated as the period of getting sober. Paradoxically, instead of a continuation of the Europeanisation of values, memory and identity in many ECE nations we can observe the strengthening of anti-EU and anti-European attitudes. As Ágh stressed in his latest works, as early as the 2008 financial crisis outbreak we have had to deal with the polycrisis situation accompanied with de-Europeanisation, failure in the catching up process, the strengthening of the Core-Periphery divide in the EU/ Europe and the decline of democracy in East-Central Europe. Even the migration crisis in 2015 and beyond strengthened the mental gaps between so-called ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe. In the article I focus on reasons for the semi-peripheral position of ECE, long durée processes in the creation of European macro-regions, and specific features of ECE nations’ identity. I reject the black-and-white division of Europe into two regions, stressing the positive examples from ECE as well as many problems of democratic governance the EU – including the ‘West’ – faces.

scholarly journals The Colour of Hope: The Legacy of the ‘Green Cadres’ and the Problem of Rural Unrest in the First Czechoslovak Republic

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Beneš
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Fault Line ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The World ◽  
Building Project ◽  
The Great War

This article addresses the divided memory and contested meaning of the Great War in interwar Czechoslovakia. Focusing on the legacy of a loose and short-lived movement of army deserters called ‘Green Cadres’ that appeared in 1918, it suggests that the Czechoslovak nation building project faced challenges not only from sizable ethnic minorities within the fledgling state, but also from the restive Czech peasantry. As elsewhere in East Central Europe, many peasants regarded the Green Cadres as liberators and representatives of a more radical, rural oriented national revolution. These unfulfilled hopes resonated through the interwar period. This article thus sheds light on an important social and cultural fault line that has been neglected in histories of the world wars in Europe.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document