Suchergebnisse

An examination of the increase in corruption in Russia and other countries in the Eastern Europe region, focussing on the links to morality. (SAJIA)

This volume focuses on how Russian policy toward Europe (and sometimes, by extension, the West more broadly) has developed since the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It argues that important aspects of cooperation have endured in the relationship despite all the vicissitudes of Russian domestic politics and at a time of flux in the international relations of the European continent. This cooperation has, at times, been fragile and has not prevented some obvious and deep-seated disagreements. It has, however, survived. Indeed, Russia and Europe have increasingly 'routinized' their relationship in a range of formal multilateral institutions.

What are the myths of Europe? This article provides the conceptual framework through which this question may be approached. It begins by defining myth in such a way as to distinguish it from other forms of political symbolism and points to the distinction between cultural and political myths. From here, the relationship between mythical and historical narratives is analyzed via a study of how the main narrative cores through which Europeans have perceived themselves have worked in different periods and contexts as both. It concludes with a more detailed analysis of some of the icons that convey the myths of Europe.

The author began working in Eastern Europe in connection with his project to study the impact of U.S. constitutionalism following the U.S. constitutional bicentennial in 1987. This led him to organize a conference on constitutionalism in Eastern Europe in 1990 and to collaborate in projects on the progress of constitutionalism in the region since that time. The question the author addresses is whether the constitutional promise apparent in 1989 and following has been fulfilled two decades later.