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Keywords: European Union; Central Asia; Idealism; Democratisation; Human Rights
Whether for its internal construction process or its relations with external environment, the European Union always emphasises that it gives priority to the democratic-liberal political and economic values and tries to disseminate the idealist discourse enhanced around these values. Within the foreign policy pillar of this emphasis, one of the most important test areas to show the degree of EU’s success is the Union’s policies towards the Central Asia. Moving from such a linkage, this study attempts to reveal the position and impact of idealist discourse within the context of EU’s Central Asia policy. Leaving aside the previous years, a new strategy and a bigger ambition has been articulated since 2007. However, this idealist policy could not have generated any serious change in the region because of the insufficient instruments and of some other reasons resulting from the attitude of the EU and seems to remain just a discourse
More...Keywords: Kyrgyzstan; Presidency; Tulip Revolution; Democracy; Authoritarianism
The rise and fall of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the second president in Kyrgyzstan’s history, was inextricably linked with revolution. Thus, the interpretation of this event became a crucial element of legitimizing efforts. Legitimization through revolution became a part of the larger strategy of traditional justification through the great ancestors and glorious past. Contrary to the previous president Askar Akayev, however, a new president had no time, enough popularity or event interests to engage in production of elaborated ideological visions of state, society or nation. While it is true that no all embracing ideological projects were designed during his presidency, the president paid a lot of attention to the symbolic aspects of his power and legitimization of his position. Moreover, the gradual concentration of power in the hands of the members of president’s family created the need for legitimization of their privileged position. As the paper claims, there were numerous and dispersed legitimizing attempts linked to the members of the family. Despite inner tensions and disagreements, the viewpoint of the family and their ideologists was more or less consistent. This was basically an authoritarian narrative never recognizing the role and importance of the people. The past was presented as a time of heroes, all of whom were presented as the ancestors of the ruling family. The origins of the ruling family played substantial role, enabling them to position their own group (Teyit tribe, Jalal-Abad oblast and south of Kyrgyzstan) on a higher hierarchical position in comparison to the rest of the country’s population. This interpretation of the past allowed for the dissemination of hagiographic stories about their family history, the culmination of which was quasi-historical idea that made the President Bakiyev eleventh Khan.
More...Le terrorisme — la violence pour la violence — est essentiellement un phénomène d'extrême droite qui tend à déstabiliser et à détruire la démocratie. L'auteur examine la thèse que l'amour irrationnel de l'action révèle une forme particulière d'anti-intellectualisme profondément enracinée dans la tradition intellectuelle italienne. On découvre dans cette tradition des constantes structurelles qui surgissent dans des contextes historiques différents. Ce sont a) l'élitisme, b) le populisme social, et c) l'anti-modernisme. Ces trois caractéristiques sont dialectiquement reliées. La conséquence principale de l'élitisme est que l'intellectuel italien ne pense pas avec autrui, mais pour, ou à la place d'autrui. Ceci mène à une position populiste sociale où l'engagement social de l'intellectuel est égocentrique. Ce fait mène à son tour au mépris "anti-moderne" de la science, de la démocratie et du socialisme. A l'appui de l'hypothèse que l'amour irresponsable de l'action est profondément enraciné dans la tradition d'élitisme intellectuel, l'auteur analyse les ouvrages et la rhétorique d'un certain nombre d'intellectuels italiens du vingtième siècle afin de montrer comment ils ont contribué à une "culture de la violence".
More...The views of R. Bahro, G. Konrád, and I. Szelény expressed in their recent publications concerning the essential characteristics of the ruling type of socialism in Eastern Europe are discussed and criticized. Their studies fail to take account of the analysis of personality structures and behavioral patterns without which one cannot understand or explain the process by which the "revolutionary" principle of totalitarianism became dominant in the Soviet Union. Several problems and questions are raised in order to stimulate interest in finding a more adequate way for analyzing the differences among (and within) Western European, Central European, and Eastern European societies. The hypothesis is advanced that bureaucratic totalitarian socialism in the Soviet Union arose because of a traditional lack of rational behavior and a lack of respect and capacity for democratic procedures and institutions. This is supported by drawing upon the work of N. Elias, especially his Über den Prozess der Zivilisation. On trouvera ici une discussion critique des points de vue que R. Bahro, G. Konrád, et I. Szelény ont exprimés dans leurs publications récentes concernant les caractéristiques essentielles du modèle dominant de socialisme dans l'Europe de l'Est. Leurs études ne tiennent aucun compte de l'analyse des structures de la personnalité et des modèles de comportement sans lesquels on ne peut comprendre ni expliquer le processus par lequel le principe "révolutionnaire" de totalitarisme a prévalu en Union soviétique. L'auteur soulève un certain nombre de problèmes et de questions dans l'espoir de trouver une méthode plus adéquate d'analyse des différences entre les sociétés d'Europe occidentale, d'Europe centrale et d'Europe orientale et à l'intérieur même de ces sociétés. Il énonce l'hypothèse que le socialisme totalitaire bureaucratique de l'Union soviétique est dû à un manque traditionnel de comportement rationnel et à un manque de respect et de capacité pour les méthodes et
More...Une question se pose: "La société est-elle en train de se détruire?" On ne peut répondre à cette question en se plaçant exclusivement du point de vue des problèmes économiques. Il faut, plutôt, examiner à fond les problèmes de légitimation car les sociétés se détruisent elles-mêmes lorsqu'elles violent les conditions de légitimité qu'elles ont posées en principe. Dans cet article j'esquisse les grandes lignes du développement de l'identité moderne — la famille d'idées qui constituent notre vue du bonheur, j'explore ces traits caractéristiques de la société moderne qui reflètent et fortifient l'identité moderne, et j'examine les moyens par lesquels la même société peut détruire sa propre légitimité. On distingue deux phases de l'identité moderne qui sont en rapport instable l'une à l'autre. La première phase remonte au dix-septième siècle et s'appuie sur une conception nouvelle et une mise en valeur de la liberté, de la nature et de l'efficacité. La deuxième phase surgit à la fin du dix-huitième siècle et s'appuie sur une fusion d'accomplissement biologique et moral. Il se dégage plusieurs caractères de la société moderne qui, tout en soutenant l'identité moderne, ne cessent de l'ébranler. La société moderne est en "contradiction" avec elle-même en ce sens que ses succès mêmes détruisent les fondements de sa propre légitimité.
More...Marx and Engels acknowledged the progressive character of the capitalist mode of production and analyzed the harmful effects of technological progress under capitalist conditions. Although Marx and Engels emphasized the significance of technical innovations in the development of productive forces as well as the ways in which they contributed to the increasing contradictions within capitalism, they were equally aware of the dangers that new technology (introduced to maximize production) entailed for human beings and nature. The possibility that "progress" might become barbarism was familiar to them. They stressed the necessity of a scientific planning of production that would conserve the environment and thereby avoid the destruction of human life. This aspect of Marx's analysis of capitalism was almost totally ignored by Lenin and his successors in the course of constructing the economic base in the Soviet Union. A similar attitude in the West was taken by members of the Second International, and is perpetuated by Marxists like Althusser who fails to acknowledge the dialectical relationship between an increased rate of production and heightened destruction and alienation.
More...Je soutiens l'importance théorique et pratique d'une distinction conceptuelle entre la classe dirigeante et la classe dominante. Chaque cas de pouvoir de classe est aussi un cas de domination mais un cas de domination de classe n'est pas toujours un cas de pouvoir de classe. La bourgeoisie est seulement la classe dominante et non pas la classe dirigeante. La classe dirigeante c'est la classe qui dirige l'Etat directement (en tout ou en partie) et qui par son pouvoir exclut les autres classes du processus politique. La raison pour laquelle il importe de faire cette distinction est qu'elle nous permet de comprendre pourquoi les révolutions démocratiques bourgeoises n'ont pas conduit tout simplement au remplacement d'un type de pouvoir de classe par un autre mais plutôt à un type essentiellement nouveau de société de classe qui permet le développement d'une vie politique démocratique pour tous les citoyens. La distinction entre le concept de classe dirigeante et celui de classe dominante a certains avantages. Elle nous permet une analyse plus subtile de la bourgeoisie où l'on voit que c'est la première classe de l'histoire qui puisse dominer sans diriger. Le concept de classe dominante est un instrument plus souple pour évaluer les degrés et les diverses formes de domination. ïl permet au marxisme l'étude des élites du pouvoir. Le plus grand avantage de la distinction entre classe dirigeante et classe dominante, c'est de permettre au marxisme d'affronter des questions politiques fondamentales qui lui seraient fermées tout autrement.
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In all probability, the revolution which broke out in Syria in March 2011 will be the fi nal act of the Arab Spring. As distinct from the revolts in North Africa, the basis of the Syrian confl ict is distinctly more complicated. This means that no clear settlement has been achieved as yet. Moreover, on the one hand, the impasse in the struggles between Baszar al-Assad’s loyalists and the rebels is causing an humanitarian crisis which is becoming steadily more evident while, on the other hand, it is giving rise to an increasingly serious threat to the entire Middle East. In this context, the article undertakes an attempt to indicate the most signifi cant determinants, both domestic and external in kind, which are affecting the specifi c nature of the confl ict. The authoritarian political system, the religious and ethnic divisions, the economic situation, the potential of the government’s army, the presence of chemical weapons and the precarious identity of, and fragmentation within, the Free Syrian Army should all be numbered among the most crucial domestic factors. When describing the external determinants, however, the Syrian confl ict should not be perceived purely as a phenomenon which has become a part of the Arab Spring movement, since the course of events in this particular country has become an opportunity for important international actors to jostle for position in both the regional and the global dimensions. This means that both the course of the war and its outcome may have a potentially crucial impact not only on the situation in Syria herself, but also on the entire Middle East.
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The object of the study was an attempt aimed at ascertaining whether the core-periphery theory can be used to describe the international economic relations involved in the emergence of a knowledge-based global economy. To that end, the most important core-periphery theses were selected and subjected to empirical verifi cation. When applying core-periphery theory to the present day, the new, global division of labour should be taken into account. The economic core consists of the nations which are the most advanced in creating a knowledge-based economy. The essence of the core’s ascendance is the fact that it produces new, innovative goods for which there is a mass demand. The greater the periphery nations’ demand for those goods, which they themselves are unable to produce, the greater the core’s dominance and ability to dictate prices. In joining the global economy and taking over industrial production, the periphery nations have derived direct benefits. The core nations have benefited indirectly by way of social security and political stability. The peripheral nations have undergone a new economic and political stratifi cation, which has separated them into an industrial semi-periphery and a raw materials periphery. The industrial periphery, processing raw materials into manufactured goods, acts as the intermediary in the trade between the core and raw materials periphery.
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Reviews: Totalitaryzm a liberalna demokracja. Ryszard Legutko, Triumf człowieka pospolitego Polski interes narodowy – dwa spojrzenia. Porównanie koncepcji. Jerzy J. Wiatr, Polski interes narodowy: refl eksje o historii i współczesności oraz Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski, Geopolityka – siła – wola. Rzeczypospolitej zmagania z losem Janusz J. Węc, Pierwsza polska prezydencja w Unii Europejskiej. Uwarunkowania – procesy decyzyjne – osiągnięcia i niepowodzenia Prezydencja Polski w Radzie Unii Europejskiej, pod redakcją Józefa M. Fiszera .....................................
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Recognition is a topic at the forefront of both modern and postmodern political philosophy. It results from the conceptualisation of the circumstances of the self; the individual’s otherness within the political community and fundamental need to make that community recognise their particularity. The solution presented by Rousseau leads to the annihilation of individuality in general will, while that put forward by Hegel gives rise to the transformation of both self and community in the process of recognition. The Hegelian idea inspired postmodern conceptions of recognition. Postmodernity is confronted with claims of recognition on the part of determinate determined, pre-political identities, particularly ethnic ones. These identities are hardly reconcilable with the notion of equality. The solution lies in shifting the objective of recognition from the fulfi lment of inner, psychological need (Charles Taylor, Axel Honneth inter alia) to the changing of institutional structure (Nancy Fraser, Jürgen Habermas inter alia). The last stage of this evolution is the concept of identity as politically constructed, and not politically expressed, in the process of recognition. The main examples of this approach are postmodern feminism (Judith Butler) and queer theory.
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Keywords: Krzysztof Michalski
The aim of the semantic and philosophical deliberations pursued in the article is to answer a question concerning the genealogy and, at one and the same time, the particular nature of the contemporary notion of ‘society’. The historical variability of the notion and its successive, objective designations are also presented. Is this notion universal, or is it relative, tightly bound up with the post-revolutionary epoch within it which it emerged, synchronously becoming a fundamental concept for a new science that was concurrently being born; sociology? Viewed from the historical perspective, ‘society’ first made its appearance as a concept closely related to the notion of community, going on to become manifest as the specifi c ‘feudal society’ and, fi nally, to emerge as ‘society’ with no adjective, an autonomous sphere of reality studied through sociology. In the course of these deliberations, what also comes into sharp relief is an essential difference between society sensu largo, in other words as the subject of sociology and sensu stricto, which is to say, a constituent part of the society-state juxtaposition. The article concludes with the posing of some questions which, in the author’s firm opinion, can only refer to society in the present-day, and thus modern, sense; questions which, on account of that same specific reference, by the same token reveal its particular nature.
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The aim of the article is to characterise biopolitics in the context of the controversy surrounding human enhancement. A diagram created by James Hughes is brought into play in order to depict the particular nature of contemporary political divides following the emergence of the biopolitical sphere. The dispute between the transhumanists and the bioconservatives relating, in essence, to the issue of the modifi cation of human nature is best grasped as exemplified by the debate surrounding the problem of human enhancement. The analysis is based on three points which, to a large extent, determine the form of the dispute, namely, the assumption of extreme connectedness, the precantionary principle and the category of distributive justice in the biopolitical perspective. An explicit emphasis is placed on the fact that the problems which emerge in the debate differ from classical political issues and demand a redefinition of the concepts fundamental to the human condition. The consequences of this change are of crucial signifi cance to the resolution of questions emerging in both the public sphere and legislation.
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Romania’s contemporary political system is generally described as presidential, semi-presidential or mixed, combining features of both the presidential and parliamentary cabinet system. The President is an essential factor of the political system. However, the role is not on a level matching that fulfi lled by the President of France under the Fifth Republic, for instance. The function of President is a relatively new component of the Romanian political system, having only come into being in 1974. When the foundations of a democratic system emerged after the collapse of communism, the President, appointed through general presidential elections, became one of its crucial elements. The personalities of successive heads of state, Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu and Traian Băsescu, have had a great impact on positioning the President within the country’s political system.
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