Suchergebnisse

The annexation of Bosnia & Herzegovina & the Bosnian crisis are only one, albeit important, fragment of the unhappy history of Bosnia & Herzegovina, which today is undergoing its most tragic period. The Serbian aggression in this area prompts us to a renewed study of some of the key conflicts over Bosnia & Herzegovina &, in particular, of the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia & Herzegovina in the beginning of the 20th century, which threatened Europe with turning into an open war. The Friedjung trial that accompanied this crisis reveals all the working methods of the Austro-Hungarian political leadership. The Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia & Herzegovina did not result in the political stability that the monarchy so fervently desired, & it stopped the aspirations of Serbia toward the same region for only a very short time. Adapted from the source document.

The author presents the conditions in which Slovenia achieved independence: the break up of communism in Yugoslavia & the decision of the Slovene people for democracy; the threat of Greater Serbian policy & the strength of communism in the so-called Yugoslavia; & the international community's lack of understanding. In spite of unfavorable conditions, Slovenia became an independent state thanks to the successful defense against the aggression of the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army). After the brief conflict, a high degree of political stability was reached (in spite of the high number of parliamentary political parties), & a successful economic policy was established. Slovenia has a common interest with Croatia in international relations. The author emphasizes that Slovene-Croat relations can be advanced through systematic solving of potential conflicts: the determination of the exact border; obstacles to economic cooperation; protection of property rights; the status of the nuclear plant "Krsko"; & the debt of the Bank of Ljubljana. Adapted from the source document.

The author gives an account of the evolution of the theories of institutional design or constitutional engineering in political science in the last twenty years. This is a special branch of political science that looks into how political institutions may serve as the means of conflict management in divided societies & whether they may be constructed in such a way as to contribute to the conflict resolution, democratization & the democratic stability of societies in general. Their rise was theoretically enabled by new institutionalism & historically by the third wave of democratization of autocratic political regimes since the 1970s & particularly since the 1990s. Using several seminal works to illustrate her point, the author shows how the theories of institutional design overlap with the theories of democratic transformation, consociational democracy, liberal democracy, & others. 42 References. Adapted from the source document.

The informal economy is today the reality of all countries in the world, including both those in transition & the developed ones, but to a varying degree. The author makes special reference to the situation in the Russian Federation, discusses some policy options for reducing the informal economy. The author argues that the implementation of the basic aim -- the policy of reintegration of the grey economy into legal system -- is through rounding-off a market-oriented economic order, full protection of property, implementation of the policy of macroeconomic stability, stable exchange rate, foreign trade liberalization & the development of financial markets. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

Modus vivendi is Gray's political concept which he links to Hobbes' political theory whose purpose is to temporarily establish the coexistence of intransigent sides i.e. ways of life. In other words, modus vivendi is a solution aimed at limiting the scope of political insecurity in plural societies by providing the minimal content of coexistence. Since this is offered as a potential solution for contemporary societies marked by value-pluralist conflicts, the author looks into the probability of the successfulness of the modus vivendi concept of coexistence. The fact is that the modus vivendi has been criticized to be a concept that generates problems it does not provide answers to, such as the issue of stability & morality/justice. In Hobbes' traditional interpretation which Gray adopted, these are not the questions that the pluralist modus vivendi approach should provide answers for. The author, however, has adopted the argument according to which Hobbes & Rawls insist on an immediate political goal i.e. stability (peace) & justice. Gray's modus vivendi follows Hobbes' blueprint of the state of commodious life. The best example of common institutions created on assumption of modus vivendi toleration is European Union. References. Adapted from the source document.

The implementation of the "Washington consensus" model in less developed & transitional countries, together with the neoliberal economic development, has also implied the transition from the "bad" to the "good" governance. The concept of the "good" governance centres around the governance ideology of effectiveness & the high-quality public service delivery. The increased effectiveness & capability, however, does not necessarily ensure qualifying governance for a long-term shaping of a state's future. The governance model in transition largely determines the transitional success or failure. The "bad" governance in Croatia is a consequence of low efficacy & rampant corruption as well as of a lack of strategic & creative governance. 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

The 1960s were the historical climax of the "Yugoslav experiment" (Rusinow). They began with a crisis of stability of the existing Stalinist system, the model of which was barely altered, and of the autocratic activity of SKJ (League of Communists of Yugoslavia). The process consisted of three stages: 1) 1962-1963: Tito's project of overcoming the crisis through a radical, but inconsistent de-Stalinization in the programme of social self-government (assembly system with a functional representation), and economic and social reforms, with reliance on the trade union and the League of Communists as the main instruments of economic and political subjectivization of the working class; but on the basis of the Leninist model of the Party, strengthening of party unity and discipline, and suppression of the federative component. 2) 1966: failure of the project, and beginning of a new course; self-critical avowal of SKJ leaders that SKJ itself, dominated by political police, was the main obstacle to the de-Stalinization process; period of economic liberalization, political democratization and pluralization of intellectual life; Tito's compromise with the prevalent coalition of republics' leaderships, with reliance on the leadership of the League of Communist of Croatia; federalization of the League of Communists (Ninth Congress of SKJ in 1969) and of the state (1971-1974), and Tito's struggle for political survival (1966-1972). 3) Tito's political confrontation with the leaderships of the League of Communists of Croatia (1971) and of Serbia (1972), and the end of the decade of political and economic liberalization, of some sort of polycentric poliarchy system. The result of the denouement: the SKJ crisis from the early 1960s was not resolved, but stabilized through a structural compromise in the organization of the League of Communists and of Yugoslavia as a federation, with Tito as political arbiter; and historical regression of social, political and intellectual life caused by unsuccessful transformation of the inherited type of Bolshevik Party into a Marxist and democratic League of Communists. Adapted from the source document.

The studies of the third wave of democratization have shown the necessity for a more precise differentiation of forms of democracy, since the definition of democracy exclusively on the basis of pluralist elections has proved lacking. The author also thinks that the instruments of quantitative evaluation of democracies (e.g. the very popular Freedom House index) are not sufficient, primarily because the quantification is not theoretically sound enough & includes a huge dose of arbitrariness. Contrary to this, the author spells Out his concept of embedded & defective democracy. Starting from the terminological suggestion by Philippe Schmitter & the systemic-theoretical description of Niklas Luhmann's intrasystemic communication, the functionally embedded democracy can be defined as a relationship of interdependence & mutual support of five partial regimes of democracy: electoral regime, political freedoms, civil rights, horizontal accountability & the real governing power. Apart from these five partial regimes, whose stable interrelationship is a prerequisite for the internal embeddedness of democracy, there are some external democracy-fostering conditions: the high level of socio-economic development, the integration into the democratically-oriented international economic & political alliances & the vital civil society. The author puts particular emphasis on the importance of the latter since it is not a part of the democratic political system but a way of organizing a non-state sphere of individual & group activity for the protection of individual rights, safeguarding the rule of law, the political socialization & the institutionalization of the public as the medium of democratic self-reflexion. & finally, the main types of defective democracy are outlined -- the exclusive, the domain, the nonliberal & the delegative -- as well as the key reasons underlying these deficits. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 60 References. Adapted from the source document.

Finer investigated the phenomenon of politics in its spatial & temporal framework, trying to look into as many forms of government as possible & to find uniformity in their variety. He paid particular attention to a study of institutions of government, which he considered the core of politics. His investigations focused on the state. By condensing the consequences of the emergence of the state on the forms of government, Finer came up with two variables: the extent to which rulers establish a standardized central administration & the extent to which homogeneous culture, religion, & laws are achieved. The second important topic in Finer's research was military organization. He wanted to demonstrate how the survival of a state, international order, social distribution of power, governing, the degree of bureaucratization, & a regime's nature, are intertwined with the structure of the state's military institutions. His opinion was that the military organization is necessary for the establishment & preservation of political communities, regimes, & governments. According to Finer, the state's key functions are preparing for wars, waging wars, reconstructing the country after wars, & expecting the next war. Finer's third topic is the relationship between political & religious systems of belief. He stressed their dualistic nature, with two more or less independent hierarchies that have been a source of serious tensions. Furthermore, Finer links the existing system of beliefs, social stratification, & political institutions. Where these factors are balanced, the political community achieves permanent stability. 2 Figures. Adapted from the source document.

In this article, the author suggests that in recent years climate change is gravely affecting the stability of the international order. The reason is not only the recklessness of the industrial sector as a source polluter, but also the lack of political will in drafting a global blueprint for creating a unique international climate regime. Even though the effects of climate change are getting worse each year, the selfish interests of states, the realpolitik in foreign policy and anarchy dominate international relations, thus representing an obstacle to creating an international climate regime. The author examines ways to overcome these obstacles to international institutionalization of climate issues by introducing three IR theory perspectives: realist, rationalist and idealist. The synthesis of these three perspectives is that the international climate regime should be decentralized; its legal acts should be drafted from inter-state agreements on specific issues, while its principles should be incorporated to the already existing international legal acts. Adapted from the source document.

In this paper, the author has tried to describe the relationship between Rawls's concept of the person, social cooperation, & political education. Rawls precisely links political education with the liberal political outlook & not to life in general. Hence, the importance for his theory of the notion of "reasonable pluralism" & the reasonably disagreeing conceptions of a good life. The author has tried to show that, for Rawls, it is the concept of the reasonable individual that is the goal of political education, ie, the ability of a person to adopt the fundamental principles of justice as the conditions for social cooperation, while the "burdens of judgment" are the source & the framework of fundamental political virtues (toleration, respect, reciprocity, politeness, etc) that Rawls promotes & considers important for the idea of the public reason, ie, a sort of deliberative democracy, as well as for the very existence & stability of a political system. Thus, Rawls got involved in the debate on the conception of liberal virtues & the possibility of their political socialization & education. 30 References. Adapted from the source document.

The place & the role of the president of the Republic in the Italian political system are looked into. The starting points are the specific features of the historical evolution of the position of the head of state from the monarchist to the republican context. The institution of the Italian president of the Republic is also specific in the context of the West-European political systems, due to the acceptance of the monarchist prerogatives in the constitutional role of the president of the Republic to the anomalous position of the head of state: they belong to the model of parliamentary political systems but at the same time possess some competences typical for semipresidential systems. The author outlines the historico-political & constitutional grounds of the peculiar position of the president of the republic in the context of the recurrent crises of the political system with unstable governments & volatile coalitions, which gives the president of the state a special, central role as the political arbiter super partes, the guardian of the Constitution & the political guarantor of the country's stability in the permanent legitimation crisis of the Italian political parties during the transition from the First to the Second Republic. Some new variables are introduced into the analysis of the political role of the president of the Republic that significantly differs from the constitutional role, due to the evolution of political communication & the new forms of political conflict which require from the president of the Republic to adjust to the new rules of the democratic game. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.