Suchergebnisse

After twenty five years since the introduction of the semi-presidential system in Serbia and in the region, this text attempt to reassess its performance, achievements and limits. It analyses the factors which the power of the directly elected president depends on (constitutional competences, manner of election, whether he is a party president, whether his party has majority in the parliament). The text explains the origin of the concept and institution, reasons for introduction, criteria for maximalist and minimalist understandings of semi-presidentialism. In new democracies the semi-presidential system faces additional challenges and temptations: 'the third mandate', absence of reelection-related incentives in the second mandate, manner of inclusion in/exclusion from the creation of politics and whether the directly elected president is in the same time the party president. Possible redesign of this political institution would require taking care that the manner of election is only one of the dimensions important for functioning of this system. The issue of the level of competences is of no less importance. The key is in the careful balance of power among the three branches of power, but above else between the president of the state and the prime minister.

We bring the most important Opinions in order to show how they have resolved in an unbiased and contradictory manner certain dilemmas about the constituent elements of a state, the conditions for the creation and the recognition of a new state and the effects of its recognition by third states. The document is of vital importance for the process of the constitution of the Croatian state. (SOI : PM: S. 177)

The German sociologist and anthropologist Helmuth Plessner has tried to explain the ascent of national-socialism in Germany with the belated formation of the German nation. Not only was it formed later than other West European nations, it was formed in a different manner. While West European nations were formed by countering monarchy with the novel concept of the state as a republic, the German nation was founded on the culture within the Reich which was "a great power devoid of the idea of the state". The author has tried to prove the limited analytical value of Plessner's distinction between the belated and the timely nations by pointing out that culture and tradition are an essential medium for the formation of nations. (SOI : PM: S. 206)

United States participation in international politics during the period between the two world wars, come not only from the general and often declarative interest in peace, but was also a consequence of extremely rapid expansion of their foreign trade and overseas capital investments. It was a period of intense financial diplomacy, when efforts to maintain the gold standard, to determine the amount of reparations and the manner of payment of war debts, brought confusion not only in relations between victors and vanquished, but also in relations between the United States and its former European allies. Abandonment of the gold standard and the creation of the tripartite agreement between the United States, Britain and France, in the 1936, was a milestone in the development of international monetary cooperation and the role of United States in international economic relations. .

What are the doctrinal implications of international responses to the demise of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)? Faced with harshly conflicting internal visions of Yugoslav self-determination, the international order - taking direction from the Badinter Commission - reacted in an essentially ad hoc manner against the most manifestly virulent of the competing ethno-nationalisms. In ascribing international legal status to a particular set of constitutionally-established internal boundaries, the Badinter Commission gave a rationale that masked rather than highlighted its departure from existing doctrine, seeking thereby to minimize any implications for the future of sovereignty and s elf-determination. Any effort to invoke the Badinter Commission judgments as evidence of a broader doctrinal transformation, attributing international legal personality to constitutionally-delineated sub-national units more generally, neglects the peculiar context of those judgments and threatens to lend undue support to externally-promoted secessionist projects. Adapted from the source document.

The European Parliament and the European Council have adopted the Directive 2008/96/EC relating to the safety of traffic infrastructure. This Directive binds the EU Member States to implement the guidelines on roads comprising the parts of the Trans-European traffic network, regardless of the stage those roads are in. EU Member States have a possibility to adopt the guidelines and regulations from the Directive and build them into the national regulations on parts of the roads that are not a part of the Trans-European roads. Based on the facts stated above, there is a research problem in a form of a question "Can the Directive 2008/96/EC be applied in the traffic in Bosnia and Herzegovina?" i.e. are its guidelines implemented as a manner of approximation with the EU regulations, and what are the effects of its implementation. This is a traffic problem in its nature, closely related to road traffic safety, and we find the answer to the research problem in theoretical and empirical research in this area.

The article presents a critical overview of underlying ideas, social context, and original teachings of two "mediating ideologies" (social democracy and conservatism) and two mass "political phenomena" (nationalism and populism). Each of them constitutes a form of more or less effective political compromise, which ought to neutralize constant tensions and clashes between the leading modern ideologies of freedom and equality, i.e. liberalism and communism. However, the clash of ideologies which were prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries has lost much of its intensity today, although the social causes that gave rise to them have remained unchanged: social inequalities, abuse of freedom, and uneven distribution of social power. At the same time, the main social forces and political organizations that had been the symbols and striking forces of freedom and equality in the preceding decades - the political parties of the "left " and "right", including the never clearly defined "political center" - also lost their identity and power. Th e then political mortal enemies look and behave today almost exactly as they did then: in the ideological sense, "everyone wants everything" (allegedly representing/ defending the interests of "all citizens"); in the organizational sense, there is almost no difference between them; whereas the difference in the manner they behave when in power is almost negligible.

In this paper it had been started from the question what was in diachronic included in the term Middle Europe, and why it was impossible to define it precisely in any sense. 'New Middle European Concept', actual in the 80s of the previous century, had also political background, but in his creation Middle European intellectuals had part in it, and it meant the fight for cultural unity of Middle European, for the recognition of their European identity. One of the first, and the most important supporter of this concept from Yugoslav area is Danilo Kish in whose literary oeuvre this virtual space is additionally mythologized. The research attention was directed to Kish's essay 'Variations on Middle European Themes', in which he had elaborated in a concise manner his comprehension of Middle Europe, Middle European culture, Middle European writer, and numerous interviews in which he had thoroughly been elaborating these attitudes. There the writer expresses his comprehension of fascism, and Stalinism, Ahasuerus, and Judaism as 'family happiness', nationalism of small peoples, inferiorities of their 'barbarian languages', and attitudes on ironic lyrisms, 'consciousness on form', and stateless people as basic poetic features of Middle European writers. Due to all mentioned, and some universal truths on the mentioned symbolic tops, this essay is rightfully considered as one of Kish's most important self-poetic texts.

More than a decade has passed since the momentous events of 1989 that changed the world order and redefined the geopolitics of Central Europe. This is just the right moment to assess the results of these changes and discuss the future of that region. Based on the past comparative studies or those currently going on, we may say that Central Europe differs from the post-communist East (the former Soviet Union) and the South-East (the former Yugoslavia with the exception of Slovenia) and Albania. First, Central-European states overthrew their communist regimes earlier and in a more decisive manner than the USSR; second, the economic transformation of Central Europe, though not completely smooth, is nevertheless much smoother than the transformation of the member countries of the CIS; third, the post-communist societies differ in the pattern by which their systems of social stratification have changed after the collapse of their communist regimes; fourth, there are big differences between the Central-European post-communist states, including the Baltic states on the one hand, and the CIS members and Serbia/Montenegro-Yugoslavia on the other regarding their international orientation. The author highlights three significant events that are going to leave their trace on the regional geostrategic situation: NATO's eastern expansion, NATO's campaign against SKY and the election of Vladimir Putin for president of Russia. The regional geopolitical picture may become more stable with closer ties between the states of Central Europe and Germany. (SOI : PM: S. 11)

Defining the dimensions of political culture is a precondition in the elaboration of the theory of this phenomenon and for its systematic empirical study. It has been demonstrated that Almond-Verba's concept of the dimensions of political culture, in the form of a matrix of the three orientations (cognitive, affective, and evaluative) times four political objects ("system", "input-objects", "output-objects" and "I" as an object) is not plausible. If political culture is defined as a set of beliefs about polit (which it indeed is), then it is clear that each belief at the same time contains an intricate mix of knowledge, emotions, and evaluations. This makes it difficult to determine the dimensions according to the mentioned orientations. It seems this was sensed by Almond himself in one of his later works. Using his more recent concept, we define the dimensions of political culture according to the "objects" of politics and not vice versa, according to the orientations in relation to these "objects". Thus we have elaborated on the three fundamental dimensions according to the three fundamental objects of politics: the "system" as a universal object, the "process" as a dynamic object of politics, and the "conduct" as a manner of decision-making and the outcome of governing. It has been found that each of these basic dimensions of political culture has a series of subdimensions (a total of about twenty-five). Surely, this matrix may be added to or perhaps amended, but basically it is unassailable, since it represents a sort of a map of political culture. (SOI : PM: S. 137)

The SANU-Memorandum of 1986 is the ultimate manifesto of the Greater Serbian idea; in the economic department, it is manifested in the form of vying for investments into Serbia, of the elimination of the "political and economic domination of Slovenia and Croatia", and of "disencumbering Serbia from contributing to the Federation fund". Its authors put the blame for the alleged lagging of Serbia exclusively on Slovenia and Croatia, and thus consequently make them responsible for all unsound economic policies in the former Yugoslavia. Particularly venomous charges are reserved for the Constitution of 1974, which makes for the independence ("secession") of Slovenia and Croatia, viewed as a precursor of a possible catastrophe. These two republics, they believe, are "morally obliged" to aid the development of the underdeveloped republics, since Serbia has sacrificed most, and the price of that has been its own thwarted development. + Two issues are central to Serbian economists: the 1961-1965 five-year plan and the system of financing a faster development of the underdeveloped regions (the Federation Fund). They demand that Serbia should be completely exempted from aiding the underdeveloped and, at the same time, extra measures for a faster development of Serbia proper should be decreed. The impossibility of solving these problems in this dictated manner brought about the economic disintegration of Yugoslavia, followed by the strategy of violence which ended in the aggression. Nevertheless, the Serbian political elite thinks that their political and economic standing has been enhanced and thus, in the negotiations about the succession, they flaunt the Memorandum propositions, and continue to live under the illusion that the Greater Serbia is a viable option, both economically and politically. (SOI : PM: S. 27)

In the course of the second rule of Princes Miloš and Mihajlo Obrenović, i.e. during 1870-ies, ephemeral ceremonies as an artificial ritual of political propaganda underwent considerable development. Leading artistic man-power, primarily Đura Jakšić and Steva Todorović, weree engaged in their realization. Thus, Jakšić wrote a number of long panegyrics, abandoning the traditional manner of court adulation and introducing a romantic dynastic mythology of the Obrenović's, primarily associated with the Takovo riot. Todorović and his coworkers designed the ephemeral architectural scenery and pictures from the vast dynastic mythology, relying upon poetry by their literary argumentation. Known through rare sketches and numerous descriptions in daily press of the time, this simple art of ephemeral festivities had persisted to be built upon the same ideas until the beginning of the 20th century, when the exchange of dynasties entailed the introduction of different mechanisms of court propaganda and different consideration of the »utilifas picturae«. ; Za vreme druge vladavine kneza Miloša i Mihajla Obrenovića, tokom sedme decenije XIX veka, dolazi do snažnog razvitka efemernih svečanosti kao aritificiranog rituala političke propagande. U njihovom ostvarivanju se angažuju vodeće umetničke snage, pre svih Bura Jakšić i Steva Todorović. Jakšić piše brojne panegiričke poeme, kojima napušta tradicionalni manir dvorske laske i ustrojava romantičarsku mitologiju Obrenovića, primarno vezan za Takovski ustanak. Todorović, sa svojim pomoćnicima, radi nacrte za efemerne arhitektonske kulise i slika brojne dinastičke mitologije, koje se literarnom argumentacijom oslanjaju na poeziju. Poznata preko retkih skica i brojnih opisa u dnevnoj štampi, ova jednodnevna umetnost prolaznih svečanosti biće građena na istim idejnim osnovama sve do početka XX veka, kada smenom dinastija dolazi do isticanja drugačijih mehanizama dvorske propagande i drugačijeg shvatanja o utilitas picturae.