Suchergebnisse

The interrelation between the development of political institutions and the processes of scientific-technical revolution is twofold. On the one hand, there must exist the political preconditions of the rapid change in science and technology. On the other hand, the processes of rapid scientific and technical change produce important consequences in the politica life.From the point of view of the economic structure of the country, Poland has reached the threshold of scientific-technical revolution ; it now depends on the political conditions whether the country wilt be able to achieve the stage of high technological development in reasonably short time.Three changes in the functioning of political institutions are directly related to the processes of scientific-technical revolution : they are changes in the system of management on all levels of authority, changes in the circulation of informations and development of autonomic structures of decision-making. Indirectly, however, other changes in the system of political institutions influence the processes of scientific and technological change. Two variants of future developments of the political institutions are discussed in this context : that of a rationalized centralism and the one of democratic self-management. The author expresses the opinion thatboth these variants would constitute conditions for rapid scientific and technological transformations but he favours the strategy of combining the strong elements of both and eliminating their weaknesses.In the second part of the paper, the author discusses the consequences of scientific-technological revolution for the political institutions. Five major factors could be hypothetically identified : 1° changes in classstructure and social stratification, particularly in the direction of increased role of the professional stratum and the increase of educational level of the working class ; 2° further political integration of the nation; 3° changesin the culture of work, increase of social discipline, and higher assessment of collective and individual efficacy of the Poles ; 4° achievement of the higher standard of living and on the basis of it leveling of economicinequalities; 5° increase of the amount of leisure time. All these changes wilt result in the formation of better and more harmonious society, which in its turn wilt make it both possible and necessary to considerablyincrease the scope of democratic self-management in all spheres of sociopolitical life. Potential restraints to this process may result from the inertia of old politica! institutions and/or from technocratic tendenciesamong some segments of the aparatus. Neither, however, is likely to become strong enough to stop the processes of democratic self-management .The main changes in the direction of greater self-management will include: 1° development of various forms of direct democracy on local levels ; 2° development of organizations which represent interests of varioussegments of the society; 3° bettering of the representative institutions (Parliament and local councils); 4° further differentiation between administrative and political authorities and further democratization of thelatter; 5° deepening of the leading role of the Communist party combined with development of its internal democracy.

Discussing the character of the Polish party system elsewhere, I have suggested a label of "hegemonic party system" for it, as well as for some other party systems based on similar principles. The hegemonic party systems stand mid-way between the mono-party systems and the dominant party systems as defined by Maurice Duverger. In an earlier paper written jointly with Rajni Kothari we have suggested the following typology of party systems:1. Alternative party systems, where two or more political parties compete for political power with realistic chances of success;2. Consensus party systems, where multi-partism does exist but one political party commands in a lasting way the loyalties of a predominant majority of the citizens and permanently runs the government;3. Hegemonic party systems, where all the existing parties form a lasting coalition within which one of them is accepted as the leading force of the coalition;4. Mono-party systems;5. Suspended party systems, where political parties exist but are prevented from regulating political life by other forces (for instance, by the military);6. Non-party systems, where the government is ideologically hostile toward the political parties as such and does not permit them to function.Quite obviously, this typology does not exclude mixed types of party systems. On the contrary, the very fact that in political life nothing is absolutely permanent leads to the emergence of transitory types of party systems.

Socialist and Social Democratic parties leave few political observers and citizens indifferent. For several years, a certain number of actors on the political scene have presented it as a political family in crisis, lacking in imagination and dynamism, incapable of renewal and doomed to fade into insignificance. Others, on the contrary, describe it as a grouping with a promising, even brilliant future.This book does not set out to confirm either of those two visions. Its aim is to analyse in-depth the transformations which are affecting, at the current time, the different aspects of Social Democracy: new organisational models, changes in political and electoral performance, changing relations with the trade unions and civil society associations, reactions to the emergence of new political rivais and new values, new ideological trends and political programmes, etc. For the first time, the analysis does not concern exclusively Western Europe, but also deals with the Social Democratic parties of the consolidated democracies and the organisations that claim to be part of democratic socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, and highlights the specific characteristics and points in common. At the dawn of the 21st century, it is therefore the challenges and the different responses to those challenges that are analysed by several of the leading European specialists in Social Democratic parties in Europe.

Les partis socialistes et sociaux-démocrates laissent peu d'observateurs et de citoyens indifférents. Depuis plusieurs années maintenant, nombre d'acteurs les présentent comme une famille de partis en crise, sans imagination ni tonus, incapable de se renouveler et appelée à dépérir. D'autres, au contraire, la dépeignent comme une famille à l'avenir prometteur sinon radieux. L'objectif du livre n'est pas de confirmer l'une ou l'autre de ces visions. L'ouvrage analyse en profondeur les transformations qui touchent, dans la période contemporaine, la social-démocratie dans ses différentes facettes : évolution des modèles organisationnels, changements dans les performances politiques et électorales, rapports modifiés avec les organisations syndicales et les associations de la société civile, réactions à l'émergence de nouveaux concurrents politiques ou de nouvelles valeurs, réorientations idéologiques et programmatiques. Pour la première fois, le propos n'est pas exclusivement centré sur la partie occidentale de l'Europe mais concerne autant les partis sociaux-démocrates des démocraties consolidées que les organisations se revendiquant du socialisme démocratique en Europe centrale et orientale, et met en évidence les spécificités et les points communs. À l'aube du XXIe siècle, ce sont donc les défis et les manières d'y répondre qui sont décortiqués par plusieurs des meilleurs spécialistes européens des partis sociaux-démocrates en Europe.