Archive 1/2005

Abstract

The paper analyzes the candidate selection procedure in Czech political parties before the elections to the European Parliament. It focuses on the four main Czech political parties: ČSSD, KDU-ČSL, KSČM and ODS. First, selection procedures are described. The description is based on the analysis of written documents (party statutes and statutes governing candidate selection procedures). Second, the article analyzes candidate selections by applying the classification framework set by Gideon Rahat and Reuven Hazan. This framework emphasizes four dimensions of candidate selection methods: candidacy, party electorates, decentralization, and voting/appointment systems. The findings from the analysis of written documents are compared with the results from a questionnaire survey conducted among the candidates. Candidate selection in ČSSD and ODS was centralized in the hands of the narrow central executive and candidacy was limited to party members. On the other hand, candidate selection in KDU-ČSL and KSČM was more decentralized, with final decisions taken by widely representative central party bodies.

Key words

candidate selection, European Parliament elections, party organizations, Czech political parties

Abstract

The breakup of Yugoslavia and especially the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina made many people ask a simple question: Why did this happen? The main goal of this article is to give an answer to this question. More specifically, the article asks: Why did the „eastern“ concept of nationalism prove to be more successful than the „western“ one during the time of social and political changes in Yugoslavia? Although the article focuses on the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, it also touches on some aspects of the historical background. Before explaining the ideological fragmentation in Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the article defines the term nationalism with a special focus on the differentiation between „eastern“ and „western“ versions of this ideology/doctrine.

Key words

nationalism, eastern and western concepts of nationalism, fragmentation of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This article analyzes the origin and development of the Movement for Autonomous Democracy – Association for Moravia and Silesia (HSD-SMS) in the early stages of the formation of the Czech political system. The article covers the period of Boleslav Bárta’s chairmanship. Bárta founded and defined HSD-SMS as a non-partisan political movement of all democratic Moravians and Silesians. HSD-SMS achieved surprising success in the first free parliamentary elections held in June 1990 (10% of the total vote for the Czech National Council). However, the following events revealed the inability of HSD-SMS to become a stable part of the Czech political system. The movement had to cope with internal problems and its own unsuccessful parliamentary policy. HSD-SMS did not manage to push through any of their policy goals in the area of territorial and administrative reorganization of the state. The sudden death of the leader Boleslav Bárta accelerated the movement’s decline. In addition, HSD-SMS lacked the attributes of modern political parties.

Key words

Movement for Autonomous Democracy – Association for Moravia and Silesia, HSD-SMS, Moravist party, territorial and administrative division, self-government, Moravian Civic Movement, MOH

Abstract

The application of the concepts of polity, politics and policy can serve as a useful tool for the analysis of the EU’s regional policy. The aim of the article is to highlight several divergences that were recognized by applying the aforementioned concepts to a single policy. The main framework of the analysis is based on the partnership principle, which is closely linked to all three dimensions (i.e. polity, politics, policy) of the regional policy of the EU.

Key words

regional policy of the EU, partnership principle, polity, politics, policy, divergences

Abstract

The Middle East has been caught in a cycle of Israeli–Palestinian violence for the last two years. Last year brought some changes that have the potential to bring about a shift in this violent situation. First, within a very short time period two figureheads of the Islamic militant group Hamas were killed by Israelis: the spiritual leader Sheikh Ahamad Yassin and the leader of Hamas, Abdal Aziz Al Rantissi. Second, an important development in the past year was the change in the policy of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He came up with the so-called “Disengagement Plan”, which envisioned the retreat of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. Such a plan was not expected from a settlement-pioneer like Sharon. Third, an event of great importance for the Middle East was the re-election of American President George W. Bush. US diplomacy plays a crucial role in the Middle East. Fourth, probably the most important event in the region was the death of long-time Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. His death will have a strong influence on the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The four developments are in the center of this article’s analysis.

Key words

Israel, Israelis, Palestinian autonomy, Palestinians, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Abstract

The chapters of the reviewed book (Barša, Pavel and Ondřej Císař. Levice v postrevoluční době. Občanská společnost a nová sociální hnutí v radikální politické teorii 20. století. Brno: CDK, 2004) present Gramsci’s and Althusser’s revisions of Marx, Laclau and Mouffe’s poststructuralist postmarxism, Melluci’s theory of new social movements, Beck’s theory of reflexive modernity, the ideas of many other thinkers (Habermas, Giddens, Gintis and Bowles etc.), and the final chapter describes the theory and practice of the anti-globalization movement. The book emphasizes that according to Gramsci and Althusser the success of capitalism is based on its ability to produce (through church, family, education, media, market etc.) docile subjects who adopt the goals of capitalism. In these authors’ view, the Marxist superstructure (i.e. ideology) has become more important than the base since it assumes material existence. Thus, subjects partake in their own suppression. In order to change this situation, alternative action on the part of subjects is required. Accordingly, the so-called new social movements replace the revolutionary plans of the communist movement with the quest for social change induced by “cultural innovations” in everyday life (Melluci). These innovations are meant to expose the hidden structures of power. Contemporary feminism is an example of such a movement. All in all, the study gives a very good presentation of the radical politics of the 20th century, although in some parts of the book Barša and Císař should have distinguished more clearly between their own ideas and the theories of the described authors.

Key words

radical politics, postmarxism, social movements, anti-globalization, civil society

Abstract

A network of young anthropologists, based mainly at the Faculty of Arts of the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň, published recently several books which have shattered established views on Roma. According to one of the leading figures in the group, Marek Jakoubek, Czech Roma do not exist as „a people“ or as „an ethnic group“. Their traditional culture, which developed in their Slovak settlements, has been destroyed by migration to the Czech lands. But even in Slovakia they did not make for an ethnic group, since they had always lacked a common identity. It is even more the case in the Czech Republic where they have become part of an excluded social underclass. The practical consequence of this thesis is far reaching: policies which have conceived of the problems of co-existence between Czechs and Roma in ethnic terms should be reformulated into social terms. What middle class Czechs and their elites identify as another ethnic group, is in reality a „culture of poverty“ (O. Lewis) with fragments of vanishing traditional culture of Roma village settlements. The article appreciates the main thrust of the argument. It claims, however, that spokespersons of the group, such as Jakoubek and another young scholar from the same university Tomáš Hirt, throw the child out with the bathwater, when they completely deny the importance of the symbolic aspect of exclusion – the collective stigmatization of the excluded as „Roma“ or „Gypsies“ – and, as a consequence, deny any utility of practices of multiculturalism which are able to cope with it.

Key words

Roma, ethnicity, social exclusion, multiculturalism

Abstract

Paulin Kola. 2003. The Search for Greater Albania, London: Hurst, 416 pages.

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Vladimír Goněc. 2002. Od "malé Evropy" k "velké Evropě". Dějiny rozšiřování Evropských společenství/ Evropské unie, sv. I and II, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 258 and 235 pages.

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Roman Chytilek, Jakub Šedo (eds.) Marián Belko, Dalibor Čaloud, Vlastimil Havlík, Petr Hušek, Nikola Hynek. 2004. Volební systémy, Masarykova univerzita v Brně, Meziná- rodní politologický ústav (IIPS), 237 pages.

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Lee McGowan. 2004. Radikální pravice v Německu od roku 1870 po současnost, Praha: Prostor, 288 pages.

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