Suchergebnisse

For a long time, the political development of Montenegro has been determined by the peculiarities of historical development and the legacy of the former Yugoslavia. The divisions between groups of citizens identifying themselves as Serbs or Montenegrins, as well as contradictions between the state and the church, have determined the configuration of political forces. The fear of national minorities of Serbian national policy and the skillful maneuvering of M. Djukanovic contributed to their support for his regime. However, the problems of economic development, Djukanovic's miscalculations regarding the Orthodox Church, as well as the lack of serious progress on the way to the EU, led to an increase in opposition sentiment and the defeat of Djukanovic in 2023 presidential elections, and the DPS in the parliamentary ones. Representatives of the younger generation of politicians came to power in Montenegro, relying to a lesser extent on traditional ethno-confessional divisions for Montenegro and aimed at solving economic problems and accelerating the process of the country's accession to the EU. The article concludes that the end of a long period of dominance of one political force does not mean the end of the process of democratization. The unresolved issues of national and state building, the influence of external centers, the lack of effective institutions for the achievement of compromise and the protection of the interests of minorities make political life unstable and complicate the adoption of effective political decisions. Despite the victory of a new generation of politicians in the last national elections, the country's traditional divisions still determine the choice of many voters and may again become relevant under the influence of market circumstances.

The collapse of the socialist system prompted the former USSR countries to "re-invent" their stateness. The paper focuses on factors that impede or smooth stateness transformations in post-Soviet countries. First, the paper examines internal and external factors of state formation in selected countries. Next, it introduces empirical research tools and empirical findings that present alternative patterns of stateness and outcomes of state formation. The paper concludes with a detailed review of certain cases that may be considered prototypes of state formation for post-Soviet countries.

The article analyzes the perception of the USSR of Russian citizens. The case of the Moscow inhabitants' narratives shows what the peculiarities of the image of the Soviet Union, and how the characteristics of socialization and other individual and collective experience influence the evaluation of the Soviet past and its legacy. The theoretical framework of the study is relied on the concept of nostalgia as a selective, changing, fragmented mnemonic phenomenon. The findings of the article are based on the results of an in-depth interview (N=11), which showed that people of different generations with different levels of education and disparate life experiences had a variety of perception of the Soviet past. Its formation largely depended on the context, including the characteristics of socialization. The representations of the older generation about the Soviet Union are more holistic, the family played the main role in formation of their pictures of Soviet past. The image of the USSR among the younger generation is more contradictory and fragmentary, and social and political institutions played a significant role in its formation. Despite critical remarks about the USSR, the informants showed nostalgic sentiments. A comparison of the statements of the respondents about the present day and the Soviet times allows us to conclude that the main elements shaping these sentiments are a lack of feelings of unity and pride in the country, as well as a lack of a sense of the state's concern for people.

The article analyzes conceptual approaches to the development of e-government. The factors that contribute to its successful development are identified. Two examples (Estonia and Germany) show the influence of a different combination of these factors. The successful development of e-government requires a combination of a number of various factors, including characteristics of political institutions, political actors, and political culture. The development of e-government entails changes in these aspects of political life and, more broadly, changes in the nature of public administration and participation. In turn, the specifics and pace of these changes also depend on the unique combination of factors. The authors show that significant economic resources and strategic planning at the state level are not sufficient explanatory factors for the successful development of e-government. Important circumstances may include the relatively small size of the state, the perspective vision of political actors, the coincidence of the interests of public and private structures, readiness to reform the management system, the creation of conditions for institutional cooperation, and coordination of interested actors. The authors conclude that prospects for further research in the field of e-government development are related to the study of unique national sets of factors that explain features of e-government models and their evolution.