Suchergebnisse

The author deals with the possibility of the application of the formalized mod in the study of the public administration issue in the federally structured American administration. The theory of American federalism has taught us that the expenses of the implementation of political decisions are inversely proportionate to the administrative level of their application: the expenses are bigger if the implementation is done at lower administrative levels, i.e. state or local instead federal authorities. On the other hand, that theory claims that the decision-making expenses are proportionate to the level of decision-making: the lower the decision-making level, the smaller the expenses. The American experience in the arena of the policy of oil and gas exploitation confirms the model's rationale, and is applicable to other fields: the optimal effect and the minimal expenses have been achieved in the situation in which political regulations are decided upon at the state level, while their implementation lies within the domain of federal government. (SOI : PM: S. 162)

The author analyses the possibilities of a symbiosis of the democratic and the constitutional principle, the expression of the strain between the desire for popular sovereignty and the wish to establish the fundamental rules of political life as permanently as possible. Sieyes' distinction between the constituting and the constituted power can easily link the idea of popular sovereignty with the idea of constitutional state, but cannot answer the question of the constituting power's right to restrain the constituted power. Since its inception, the democratic constitutional state has been a dyadic entity i.e. a democratic and constitutional state. The dilemma is whether to respect the existing constitution and follow the procedure envisioned for amending it, or to make amendments following a revolutionary breach with the existing situation i.e. a direct manoeuvre of the constituting power. The author is in favour of separating what the constituting power may decide upon and what the constituted power may decide upon, since this maintains the balance of both types of powers in a constitutional state. (SOI : PM: S. 28)

The author argues that in the debates about "democratic transition" of post- socialist societies the importance of development of state of law for the formation of democracy has not been sufficiently accounted for. The absence of state of law results in the formation of authoritarian structures of politi power which in the long run obstruct the process of democratization. Those structures include the concentration of political power in the hands of charismatic leaders, the transformation of political into economic power, the formation of clientelist structures, the development of a system of privileges and corruption, and the break-down of the state monopoly of the means of violence, resulting in the "refeudalization" of political power. In conclusion the author describes two developmental options for the post-socialist societies: the formation of a "Latin American" type of authoritarian-populist regimes or the gradual transformation towards a Western type of state of law and liberal democracy, initiated by the pressures from the international environment and internal forces. (SOI : PM: S. 85)

The author poses the question: what makes Francois Mitterrand the "classic" type of ruler i.e. what makes him above-the-average contemporary politician. Following the well-documented analysis of the entire period of his rule, the author concludes: history will reveal Mitterrand's various masks, but never his true face. He exploited the classical mise en scene of power, so his true persona should be sought in the interplay of his numerous disguises. Mitterrand stands out among the contemporary political figures in the ability to use his power to ward off all attempts at its usurpation, th transforming his own power into the memory of the coming generations. (SOI : S. 178)

The author analyses the role of the constitutional judiciary and the traditional theory of the tripartite division of power. His radical conclusion is: the division of power in Montesquieu's sense, as a tool of control and balance in modern state, does not exist. There is no social violence to which such balance, control or correction could be applied to. In such circumstances, the role, selection and work of constitutional judges is of utmost significance for the control, correction and balancing of political process. (SOI : PM: S. 87)

The maxim that the people is the agent of the constituent power has, since the French revolution, been a universally accepted answer to the issue of the origin and the degree of validity of constitutional law which, as the ultimate norm of a state's legal order has no other higher positive law norm. But that maxim disregards political reality. Neither is it convincing from the point of view of the theory of state. The people is not the subject of activity but onl of reference. The maxim on the constituent power of the people is a democratic myth. As such it is polyvalent: the reinforcement of revolution or its prohibition determine whether the existing constitutional regime is to be overthrown or legitimised. The doctrine of the constituent power of the people is not cognitively rewarding as a theory of legitimation, either, since the effectiveness of a constitution does not depend on its provenance but on the reception it gets here and now from its addressees: state agencies and citizens. (SOI : PM: S. 63)

In this text the author elaborates on two central assumptions. The first assumption (based on the comparative survey results from ten postcommunist countries) is that there is a marked positive correlation between the residue of "communist legacy" in people's minds and the electoral success of leftist parties. Since that legacy in Croatia (and Czech Republic) has been weakest, this is going to be an aggravating circumstance for SDP in their struggle for power. The second assumption is that the politics of leftist parties which could come to power is to shuttle between two extremes: the restoration of real socialism in a modified form and the social-democratic model of Sweden or at least Germany. According to the author, the key agents of such politics are "neotraditionalism" and "political capitalism" both inherited from the former system. (SOI : PM: S. 46)

The article presents a public echo of the 1966 party conference which dealt with the misuses of the State Security Services (SDS). The issue is described in four parts; the Brijuni Plenary as a subject of investigation in domestic and foreign literature; chronology of events; discussions in political organizations and newspapers; the dossiers - police documentation on citizens. In the literature. the political fall of Aleksandar Rankovic, the founder and for a long time leading figure of that agency, is considered as a political struggle for power or the outcome of the confrontation between "reformist" and "conservative" stream in the Union of the SKJ. The chronology deals with the time between the "Plenary", July 1 - 2, 1966 and the adoption by the Federal Parliament of Yugoslavia of the new law of internal affairs by the end of the same year. In December of that year Josip Broz Tito issued a clemency to S. Rankovic and fifteen other highest officials of that agency. The discussion in the political organizations and newspapers showed that political activists, and "simple" people as well, think that the responsibility for the misuses lie not only on individuals but on the way the organization was structured and on the unlimited power it had. The party leadership tried to subdue those criticisms. because they did not want to be left without the most valuable partner in the system of power. The public was also made aware of a great number of private dossiers - the police documentation on citizens which came into existence in the preceding twenty years. The most diligent was the SDS in Croatia, which amassed one million three hundred thousand such dossiers. (SOI : CSP: S. 489)

The central question in teaching the subject of confidential information is to define the borderline between the citizens' interest in learning certain information ("the right to know") and the general interest of keeping certain information confidential - in a word, between the justifiable and unjustifiable secrets. This is an area which includes parts of administrative and public media law and the theory of public law. This paper is limited to the analysis of the issue of the classified information in state possession (state, military and official secret) on three levels: theoretical, comparative and on the level of Croatian legislation. The essential elements of the theoretical concept of confidentiality are: the possession of the information kept secret from others; deliberate concealment; social context. A secret can have different forms: strategic, private, pressing, sequential, collective, petty, deep, simple, exploited and as conspiratorial as a plot. The theoretical analysis of confidentiality deals with the questions of contemporary forms of the manipulation of information (defining agendas and priorities, "quantitative overload", lobbying) and with the generic issue of the process of decision-making, lies and halftruths. In the end, the author offers certain elements for the legislation regarding classified information. (SOI : PM: S. 197)

The author's assumption is that a regular rotation of the left and the right in power has been a long-standing feature of stable European democracies. In most East European countries the collapse of communism was followed by the electoral defeat of leftist parties. However, in the last two years these regions have witnessed a return to power of more or less transformed leftist parties and leaders. This does not mark the return of communism, which has definitely become a thing of the past, though some of these leftist parties nurture certain revisionist traits. In less developed countries, former communist elites are being transformed into national political elites, while in more developed countries of Eastern Europe the transformation of leftist parties into social-democratic parties has been completed. The author underlines the prominence of the national element in the political programmes of leftist parties. He goes on to conclude that the main reason for the resurgence of the left in East European countries lies in the social repercussions of the transition and the fact that the right has been turning a blind eye to these problems. (SOI : PM: S 41)