Archive 2/2003

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the variance between normative regulation(s) of national question in the second Yugoslavia (1945 - 1991) and the political reality. The second Yugoslavia was based on the results of the Second World War that affected internal political life of Yugoslavia very strongly. In the period between the wars Yugoslavia did not solve the national question - big, constitutive nations (Croats, Slovenes) were not satisfied with their position in the new state, overruled by Serbian political elities. The basics of the second, so-called AVNOJ-Yugoslavia were built on the idea of "brotherhood and unity" - Yugoslavia become a federation built by six republics and five, later six (Muslims) constitutive nations. The main idea of Tito, Kardelj and other political leaders was, that on the basis of Yugoslavian sui generis ideology (mixture of Marxism, Kropotkian anarchism, personal authoritarianism, etc.) new, Yugoslavian supra-nationality could be realised next to the national identities. Already in the 1950s it was declared that the national question was solved, but the political reality in the second half of 1960s showed that the political reality is much complicated. The political leadership tried to solve the problems with new constitution (1974) that adopted the principle of consensus. The Serbian leadership, but also Tito did not agree with the change - in his opinion the new constitution denied the principle of "brotherhood and unity", i.e. the principle of superiority of Yugoslavian supra-nationality (federation) above national identities (republics). In the 1980s Yugoslavia experienced strong economic crisis, but also the crisis of governance. The gap between supporters of democratisation (Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia) and supporters of authoritarian solutions (Serbia) grew rapidly. In the crisis the national questions was used as the main argument against the existence of the Second Yugoslavia in its contemporary form. Solutions were two - democratic confederation or centralised authoritarian state.

Key words

Second Yugoslavia, national question, normative regulation, supra-nationality, national conflict.

Abstract

This article examines quality of political science in Slovakia. It is based on recently published major reviews as well as some smaller reviews and reports on political science or science in general in Slovakia. Thus, this is a meta-review of political science in Slovakia. The article argues that there exists strong but not directly estabilished link between ethics of a formal scientific community. Therefore, although often in background, the ethics is important in science. Otherwise one can hardly speak about science. In this context it is suggested that there is serious problem with ethics in (but not only) political science in Slovakia. The author defines three criteria for evaluation of quality of political science: clear definition of the research subject, proper definition of profession and valid criteria for evaluation of achieved results. Following discussion suggests low level of political science in Slovakia. The authtor finds four major causes for low level of political science in Slovakia. Firstly, political science in Slovakia has been estabilished by sociologists, "scientific communists" abd various other former Marxists with often low level of truly scientific education. Secondly, there is high demand for academic papers. Even those scientists with better quality cannot cope with this demant under pressure. Thirdly, there is no interest in keeping or, indeed, estabilishing high quality professional political science among members of Slovak Political Science Association. Lastly, and crucially, neither state nor universities are by and large interested in quality of political science (or science in general) in Slovakia. In short, standards of political science have not been estabilished and there is still missing interest in this issue. In addition, there is overall low level of academic discourse (if there is any) in humanities and social sciences and low level ethics in society at large - including academic community.

Key words

Political science, Slovakia.

Abstract

The authors of this article compare the powers of the European Parliament and the classical national parliament as a part of the triad of powers in the state. In this context, they found the powers of the European Parliament limited and non-consistent in relation to the other institutions and national parliaments. This is, according to the authors, the main reason of current troubles with a proposal of a Treaty on the European Constitution. There is still a deep gap between legitimacy of the European Parliament that comes out from the principle of direct voting and its powers. The only power comparable with those of the classical national parliament is self-administration. On the contrary, in the most important field - legislative process - the European Parliament is only the second most important European body along with the Council. The authors take a view that the finding of proper balance among institutions and their legitimicy for making decisions shloud be understood as the key element for successful integration of Europe in the future.

Key words

European Parliament, European Union, decision-making process, legitimacy, legality, integration, powers, division of powers, checks and balances.

Abstract

The article is looking at the hypothesis whether we can find any differences - especially in the terms of poles configuration - in the municipal party system of the towns of Prague, Brno and Ostrava, even though there some basic agreements. The main agreement of all the three municipal part systems can be seen in the fact that during the three monitored periods there was a main partial-political pole of right-centred ideolofical orientation - ODS in function. None of the systems was symetrical in the area of the pole configuration. Neither of them is showing - for the time beeing - the marks of rigidity in sense "frozen" partial interactions and structures. Still, we should be aware of this "rigidity" when talking about the town of Prague, where the situation is coming close to the one described before, mainly due to the relations of the right-centred and centred sector. Our main effort was to bring the concept of party polarization and the poles of the patrial-political interactions forward to the communal level - in part, at least. Of course, it should be understood that thoose concepts cannot be applied to the field of the communal politics in general. We are sure that the prospective extension of this research study containing another big town of the Czech Republic may bring remarkable results.

Key words

Poles, polarization, municipal party systems, political parties, Czech Republic, Prague, Brno, Ostrava.

Abstract

As a starting point, the author represents a statement that argues history and contemporary condition of the constitutional arrangement of the referendum are marked by an obvious scepticism towards this legal institution. Referendum is legally embadded at the local level only (so-called local referendum); at the national level the constitution admits referendum just in case of the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union. This referendum can be characterised as obligatory, mandatory, parliamentary and of ad hoc nature. In the Czech Republic, such a referendum appears to display several problems: non-existence of minimal treshold for voters' participation; some issues related to iteration of referendum in case of its negative result at the first voting, and to posibility to repeat the referendum in the same matter only after two years; and finally strongly insufficient and in practice unclear judicial control of the referendum.

Key words

referendum, minimal treshold for voters' participation, possibility to repeat the referendum, judicial control of the referendum.

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This article presents a brief analysis of forms and contents of political communication, including special features and key topics as well as communication strategies during the election campaign in Slovakia before the parliamentary elections in September 2002. It is asserted that the parties SDKÚ, KSS, ANO, SDL and Smer carried out the most professional campaign (based on various criteria of evaluation discussed in the text). Yet the rest dufferent sharply. The 2002 campaign was in general more professional than the campaign before the 1998 parliamentary elections. The most expensive, longest and most visible campaigns were organized by Smer, SDKÚ and ANO. On the one hand, comparison of costs and profits as well as gain of voters in percents in comparison to the beginning of 2002 suggests that the campaign of the KSS was the most efficient one. On th eother hand, overall gain of voters in real (total) numbers suggests that the campaign of the SDKÚ was the most successful. Political personalities and TV discussions played a key role in the campaign. However, these discussions of politicians were in fact no discussions at all but rather answers to questions and self- or party-presentations. Information from television broadcasts was considered to be the most important source of information for the majority of citizens. Private electronicmedia were not allowed to broadcast party electoral propaganda. Meetings with supporters or curious citizens had a form mostly of entertainment. The campaign was mostly filled with soft rhetoric, with the exception of Smer and the SNS and P SNS. Besides political manipulation by TV Markíza in favour of ANO, there were dozens of related activities of NGOs. The latter activities were often controversial and eventually with little likely effect. Billboards seem to be very important and relatively cheap tools for political marketing (ANO, SDKÚ, Smer). Meetings with citizens (KDH) as well as regional party structures may play an important role (KSS). Widespread visual presence of message does not guarantee success (SNS). From the point of content of messages, direct, clear and concrete rhetoric is the best. Yet this kind of rhetoric is not good enough for success in itself (HZD, SDL, SNS and P SNS) The research has confirmed that covert propaganda is more efficient than overt propaganda, but overall performance in the previous electoral period is more important than various threats or promises (SNS, P SNS and SDL). Criticism (case of SDKÚ) or ignorance in news (case od KSS) are not key criteria for some voters. However, negative information of fuzzy formulations can deter some voters from taking part in elections (former HZDS voters) or from supporting a party (as was case of Smer). The campaign is important mainly for keeping stable support of the electorate. The most important thing is not to make strategical or tactical mistakes. The key to success or failure seems to be the macrocontext ofelations. Political marketing was born or perhaps even firmly etabilished in Slovakia with the 2002 campaign.

Key words

Parliamentary elections, campaign, Slovakia.

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of political development in former post-colonial state in the Horn of Africa, Somalia, during last decade. Since tha fall of Slyad Barre's regime in 1991 Somalia has become typical collapsed state without any central government for more than ten years. Subsequent clan-based conflicts and fighting among rival faction leaders erupted. The cease-fire efforts of the United Nations during 1992 - 1995 peace enforcement missions UNOSOM I and II were not successful as well as the multinational forces concerted in UNITAF mission led by US. In 1991 the Somali National Movement proclaimed an independent state, the Republic of Somaliland, in northwest regions but it has received no international recignition yet. Autonomous state of Puntland (created in 1998 by the Somali Salvation Democratic Front) supports federal solution to Somali's political problems. One of the most important events in recent political progress was the foundation of the Transitional National Government (TNG) and the election of president Abdiqasim Salad Hassan as the head of the state in 2000. TNG has a three year mandate and this new administration also occupies Somalia's seat in UN although it controls only about a half of the capital Mogadishu and let alone nearly the rest of the country.

Key words

Somalia, clans, civil war, cease-fire efforts, collapsed state, Transitional National Government.

Abstract

Pavel Pečínka (2002): Zelená zleva? - Historie ekologických stran v Evropě, Praha: G plus G, s.r.o., 261 pages.

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Jan Kysela (Ed.) (2003): Deset let Ústavy České republiky. Východiska, stav, perspektiva, Praha: Eurolex Bohemia, 424 pages.

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Vladimíra Dvořáková (2002): Spojené státy americké: Společnost a politika, Praha: Libri, 298 pages.

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Vít Hloušek, Lubomír Kopeček (Eds.) (2002): Rudí a růžoví. Transformace komunistických stran, Brno: Mezinárodní politologický ústav MU, 280 pages.

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Miroslav Novák (Ed.) (2002): Komunismus a fašismus, Institut pro středoevropskou kulturu a politiku, 276 pages.

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Petr Suchý (Ed.) (2001): Zahraniční politika USA v devadesátých letech dvacátého století, Brno: Mezinárodní politologický ústav MU, 121 pages.

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Ve dnech 20. - 21. března 2003 se ve východoslovenském Prešově konala konference na téma "Levice a pravice na Slovensku a v Evropě".

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