Suchergebnisse

Freedom of Religion, Institution of Conscientious Objection and Political Practice in Post-Communist Slovakia1

The example of Slovakia is used to show how one of the post-socialist countries failed in fulfilling the demanding task of securing freedom of religious belief (including the right to conscientious objection) and, at the same time, securing all other human rights. An analysis of the methods used for changing the policies of pluralism and neutrality of the state into a policy of discrimination (e.g. concerning the registration duty for churches) was carried out, followed by an analysis of a mechanism used for guaranteeing freedom of conscience of the members of the Catholic Church (the so-called Vatican Treaty). The treaty violates the prohibition of discrimination against women, because it makes it more difficult for them to have access to some health care services. Our hypothesis states that the hurriedly introduced right to conscientious objection is misused in this context as a means of regulating the politics of reproduction. In general, the re-Catholisation of the Slovak Republic follows two aims—to help in the fight for votes in the elections (because 70 % of Slovaks declare their religion to be Catholic), and to improve demographic development in the Slovak Republic (declared to be catastrophic by the Catholic Church), through hindering free access to abortions.

Judgments of political concepts in countries with different levels of democracy & advanced states of market economy are compared with those derived from survey data from 50 Hungarian, 50 Slovenian, 48 Slovakian, 41 Murcian (Spanish), 22 Galician (Spanish), & 40 Swedish students. Political concepts -- eg, democracy, inflation, & European market integration -- were evaluated with 8 7-point bipolar adjectival scales, presented under 6 different orientations. Cross-cultural differences in judgments were factor analyzed for Murcia vs Galicia, & for Spain vs other countries. The Murcian students evaluated the political & economic situation of Spain much more pessimistically than the Galicians did, & students of both regions projected these opinions of Spain onto the other countries. Spanish vs other European students differed on many evaluations. 7 Tables, 5 Figures, 4 References. Adapted from the source document.