Suchergebnisse

The article deals with the latest presidential election in Belarus in March 2006. More specifically, the aim of the text is to focus on its legitimization function in the context of Lukashenka's non-democratic regime & its stability. This goal is based on an assumption that the election's role lies not only in its formal, but also in its factual confirmation of the regime legitimacy. An assessment of this presumption is made by means of an analysis of the formal setting of the election & its administration, by definition of the role of participating actors (governmental, formal & factual ones) & the Belarusian electorate, & by the final categorization of confirmed legitimacy. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with the complicated & multifaceted topic of Polish politics between the two world wars. This time period was characterized not only by a "classical" political instability but, much more importantly, also by the instability of the whole political system. The democratic regime created in 1919 was weak & was abolished by force in 1926. The subsequent political system was authoritarian (but not totalitarian) & survived until the end of the Polish state in October 1939, when Poland was attacked & occupied by the German & Soviet armies. The questions posed by the article are manifold. Why did Poland introduce democracy in the hardship years of 1918-1919, but did so for only a few years? Why was not democracy successful? Why did Poland accept authoritarianism & what were the political & constitutional consequences of that step? 31 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article applies classical typologies of totalitarian & authoritarian regimes by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carl Friedrich & Juan Linz to the case of the first Slovak Republic (Slovak State). Its political regime between 1935/1939 & summer 1940 can be classified as organic statism. Organic structures (corporativist structures) & the antiliberal & anticapitalist rhetoric of the Catholic Church in encyclicals like the Rerum Novarum were typical of this type of authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, the Nazi pressure led to the transition of the regime to the "defective" (or "arrested") totalitarian regime, which is, according to Linz's typology, in the "grey" zone between totalitarian & authoritarian regimes. The defeats of the German army & changes inside Slovak's camp resulted in the erosion of the regime base at the end of 1942 & brought about yet another regime change. The end of the stage of "unclear" authoritarian regime was marked by the armed insurrection in August 1944. The totalitarian episode, in which the main role was played by the German occupation forces, characterized the last months of war. 39 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article tries to evaluate the Europeanization research agenda from the point of view of a politics-sphere A basic precondition for understanding the character of the political systems in East-European countries after the Second World War is to define the key concepts, especially different types of non-democratic regimes. In other words, we must know what "totalitarianism", and "authoritarianism" means, and how we should approach studying these species. According to empirical and analytical methods, we consider them both as ways of governing, as types of political systems and not something else (e.g. ideology, a way of thinking, etc.). Eastern Europe after 1944, with some exceptions, was not totalitarian and is better described as quasi-totalitarian or authoritarian. However by the term "quasi-totalitarianism" we do not mean a subtype of "post-totalitarianism" (as Juan J. Linz does), but as a separate category of non-democratic regime. Of course it is necessary to take into account the differences existing among particular countries as well as differences "inside" these countries, meaning their unique historical development. This is evident in the case study portion of this article which describes the political system of Poland 1944-1989. Adapted from the source document.

The article analyses the evolution of the Slovak political party "Smer" (Direction) and its position in the party system of Slovak Republic. The article focuses on the shift of the party program from the "Centrist Populism" towards "Social Democracy." According to the first program documents the Party of "Smer" (Direction) was designed as pragmatic, non-ideological party. In the persistent conflict between authoritarianism vs. democracy "Smer" identified itself as the pro-democratic and pro-market force. Party policy before 2002 contained only few social democratic components; it was closer to the conservative or right-wing populist parties. After the parliamentary election 2002 and the failure of non-communist left "Smer" decided to become a member of the Socialist International (SI) and Party of European Socialists (PES). The process of the institutional approach to the international Social Democratic Party structures was accompanied by the substantial changes in the social and economic program of the party. The process was completed on the institutional level in May 2005, when Smer joined both SI and PES, and on the level of political program on the Party Congress in December 2005. In the process of so called "socialdemocratisation" of "Smer" the international factor played crucial role, especially the need to have an international partner in the European Parliament. "Smer" met the standards of the Social Democratic identity only in the social and economic affairs. The other five dimensions - environmental policy, participative democracy, cultural and human-rights dimension, supra-national dimension and the dimension of equality and freedom "Smer" met only partially or not at all, so these process remains unfinished. According to some political declarations "Smer" remains the populist party and the uncompromising critic of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, on the other side the official documents of the party anticipate only the moderate corrections of the economical and social reforms, ...