Archive 1/2004

Abstract

This article applies classical typologies of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carl Friedrich and Juan Linz to the case of the first Slovak Republic (Slovak State). Its political regime between 1938/1939 and summer 1940 can be classified as organic statism. “Organic structures” (corporativist structures) and the antiliberal and anticapitalist rhetoric of the Catholic Church in encyclicals like the Rerum Novarum were typical of this type of authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, the Nazi pressure led to the transition of the regime to the “defective” (or “arrested”) totalitarian regime, which is, according to Linz’s typology, in the “grey” zone between totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. The defeats of the German army and changes inside Slovak’s camp resulted in the erosion of the regime base at the end of 1942 and brought about yet another regime change. The end of the stage of “unclear” authoritarian regime was marked by the armed insurrection in August 1944. The totalitarian episode, in which the main role was played by the German occupation forces, characterized the last months of war.

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Slovak state, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party

Abstract

Year 2003 was meant to be the year that would change the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for good, but the violence continued on both sides. There was a new peace plan – the roadmap – and talk of a new Middle East. But as the year ended, the roadmap was not fulfilled. In an attempt to make the roadmap work, peacemakers invented a new post – that of Palestinian prime minister. Mahmoud Abbas was the first man to try the new post. But he did not get very far. He spent most of his premiership in a power struggle with Mr Arafat and he gave up. Last year a group of former Israeli officials and Palestinian ministers was promoting their own proposal – the Geneva Accord. This plan details the exact dimensions of a two state solution. For now, it is just fantasy peacemaking – but its backers are hoping that it could take hold as a serious alternative. Finally, there is the proposal which may be the most important of them all. Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned that he will impose what he calls his Disengagement Plan should the Palestinians fail to meet his demands for a new leadership and the dismantling of armed Palestinian factions. Ariel Sharon has decided to give the Palestinians a few months to comply – he will not be any more specific than that. If they do not meet his terms and his timetable, he has warned that he will take unilateral steps to draw up his own borders and to impose a settlement in Israel’s favor.

Key words

Israel, Palestinian autonomy, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Abstract

Language is one of the most important elements of cultural identity, but also an expression of economic and political structures and relations. This article is mostly dealing with the role of languages in political processes on three levels: national, regional and international. Presently, all of them are changing together with the structure of contemporary international politics. However, the process of economic globalization does not mean the end of the traditional role of national languages in the process of nation-state building. Nation states are traditionally against policies of multilinguism and against political rights for minority languages. These processes are still quite visible, particularly in Asia. Nevertheless, globalization is also connected with new regionalism, on intrastate as well as international levels. The new role of languages on the regional level often reflects, especially in developed countries, processes of political decentralization. On the international level there is a special role for imperial languages. However, processes of integration in developed countries, particularly in Europe, in contradistinction to some other regions, are haunted by problems and limits because of language diversity and the lack of one unifying language.

Key words

language policy; globalization; nation-state; new regionalism; decentralization; integration; imperial languages

Abstract

The paper presents a wide spectrum of the existing theories of sociology, law and political science dealing with the discretion of officials in public and social policy. Concretely, the paper focuses on three different ways of how to understand the existence of discretion (definition perspective), its functions (role perspective), and its use by officials at the state and local levels (structural perspective). These perspectives are presented in order to identify factors that determine officials’ discretion and to grasp the concept of discretion as a tool that reveals the limits of officials’ behavior. In the end the paper summarizes the constituent factors determining public officials’ discretion.

Key words

discretion, public and social policy, policy implementation, policy modification, unsatisfied clients, officials at state and local level, factors influencing discretion, institutional environment of organization

Abstract

From the beginning of social thinking, social class has been used as an explanatory factor for social phenomena in both the Marxist and Weberian traditions. However, many sociologists have pointed out that during the second half of the 20th century and especially at the beginning of the 1990s the usefulness of social classes in explaining social phenomena is declining. This article presents three recent debates on class analysis. The debates outline two opposing arguments. The first position accepts the ‘death of class’ argument and conceptualizes contemporary socio-economic inequalities in terms of a status-based society. The second position rejects the ‘death of class’ argument and conceptualizes contemporary socio-economic inequalities in terms of a new language of class. The question remains as to which of these arguments will be more persuasive for sociology in the next decade.

Key words

social classes, class theory, class analysis, death of class

Abstract

This paper describes the support of non-parliamentary actors in the local elections in the Czech Republic. The article primarily analyzes the statistical data of the Czech Statistical Office. The term „non-parliamentary actor“ is very general because of different structures of these actors, their divergent goals, and ideological foundations. These actors are not represented in the House of Deputies (lower chamber) of the Czech Parliament. Non-parliamentary actors do not represent a coherent group. The article shows their support in municipalities. They have stable support in many municipalities at the local electoral level. We can consider non-parliamentary actors as parties of a limited regional support: they have strong influence at the municipal level and nearly no influence in the Parliamentary elections. Non-parliamentary actors acquire more than 20% votes in regional centers such as Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Zlín, Olomouc, Hradec Králové.

Key words

non-parliamentary actors, local elections, regional centers, municipality

Abstract

The article aims to describe and analyze the phenomenon of the EU regional policy in the Czech Republic. For the purpose of the article, the regional policy of the EU is described as a relation between the independent Czech regional policy bound by Czech laws and regional support of the EU. The article describes the actual preparation (legislative, institutional) of the Czech Republic for the effective utilization of regional support in the context of EU enlargement. The article also analyzes possible problems and conflict areas in the implementation structure of Joint regional operational program.

Key words

regional development, regional policy, Joint operational program, operational programs in the Czech Republic, National development plan, implementation of regional policy

Abstract

Are the Jews an ethno-religious group or a nation with the right to self-determination? This was an open issue at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. In the wake of Holocaust and of the establishment of the modern Israel, the answer became much more determinate, even if – due to the split between Israeli and Diaspora Jews – still not unambiguous. The Eichman abduction and trial in 1960 – 62 and the victorious war with the Arabs in June 1967 offered new opportunities for the reconstruction of the Jewish identity in view of both the unprecedented catastrophe of the Jewish people and the subsequent resurrection of its statehood. Gorny elaborates two ideal types of the Jewish self-conception that followed from two opposite interpretations of Holocaust and of the foundation of Israel. Post-zionism gives these two events a universalistic reading, neo-zionism (or ultra-zionism) a particularistic one. The two interpretations imply two competing versions of the Jewish identity; one is open towards the world and other peoples, the other focuses exclusively on the Jews. Accordingly, two different approaches towards the Palestinians follow; one seeks to understand their grievances and to find a compromise, the other relies on the brute force and remains intransigent. Even tough the book was published two years before the second Intifada broke out, Gorny’s ideal-typical dichotomy still offers the best access to deep sources of the current predicament of the Jewish identity and Israeli politics.

Key words

holocaust, Israel, Jewish identity

Abstract

Molan Znoj, ed. 2002. Šance otevřené společnosti. K poctě Karla R. Poppera, Studia Philosophica XIII. Praha: Karoli- num, 116 pages.

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Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2003. Jiná cesta k trhu. Hledání alternativy k současné podobě globalizace, Praha: Prostor – edice Střed, 408 pages.

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Jakub Šedo, ed. 2003. Evropská otázka ve volebních kampaních, Brno: Masarykova univerzita v Brně a Mezinárodní politologický ústav, 139 pages.

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Fareed Zakaria. 2003. The Future of Freedom. Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, New York, London, 287 pages.

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Stanislav Balík, ed. 2003. Komunální volby v České republice v roce 2002, Brno: Mezinárodní politologický ústav, 143 pages.

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