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The paper tackles the question of Albert Camus', French Nobel prizewinner and existentialist, political philosophy of rebellion. The text has been divided into five parts. In the first part there are introductory statements, in the second part the problem of metaphysical rebellion is introduced, the third one concerns the topic of relationship between rebellion and nihilism, the fourth part of the text contains the analysis of historical aspects of rebellion. The last, fifth part, presents the detailed analysis of the concept of rebellion in existentialism. This article was based on Camus' original texts, as well as on the commonly known literature of the topic.
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In an article written in 1995 titled “What Is Different about Postcommunist Party Systems?” Peter Mair applied the method that he called “ex adverso extrapolation.” He matched his knowledge of the process of consolidation of party systems in the West with what was known at that time about Eastern European history, society, and the emerging post-communist party politics. Considering factors such as the existence of fluid social structures, the weakness of civil society, or the destabilizing impact of the so-called triple transition, his article predicted long-term instability for the region. In the present article, we evaluate the validity of Mair’s predictions, thereby also contributing to a lively debate in the current literature about the scale and nature of East–West differences and about the trajectories of the two regions. Going beyond the identification of cross-regional similarities and differences, we also differentiate between individual party systems, establish subgroups, and describe changes across time. Using four major dimensions (i.e., party system closure, party-level stability, electoral volatility, and fragmentation), the article finds that Mair’s predictions were largely, though not in every detail, right. Ironically, however, we also find that changes in the West tend to match over time the trajectory of the East.
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Various forms of inter-party cooperation have important effects on party system fragmentation and stability in young democracies. However, the conceptualisation and measurement of these forms of inter-party cooperation and the examination of their consequences on party system development remain limited in the literature on parties and party systems. This research addresses this gap in the scholarship in three ways. First, we present the analytical scheme of different types of party cooperation. We argue that the forms of inter-party cooperation vary on two dimensions. The first dimension refers to their structural basis: the stability of the cooperation as captured by whether it is rule-based or, in other words, underpinned by shared rules that are mutually accepted. The second dimension refers to their scope: the number of functional areas of party life subject to cooperation. The two dimensions lead us to four basic forms of inter-party cooperation: (1) non-rule-based, functionally restricted coalitions; (2) rule-based, functionally restricted coalitions; (3) non-rule-based organization-wide mergers; and (4) rule-based organization-wide mergers. Second, we develop theoretical expectations on the frequency of these forms of inter-party cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. Third, to test these expectations, we present empirical evidence on the number of electoral coalitions and mergers in the first six electoral periods in 10 countries in the region. The results of the analyses support our expectations: non-rule-based organization-wide mergers are rare. The other three forms of party cooperation (nonrule- based coalitions; rule-based coalitions; rule-based mergers) are fairly common in most countries in the region, although less so in the more recent electoral periods.
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Political parties in Central and Eastern Europe come and go quite rapidly, giving the region a reputation for electoral chaos, but amid the change, some parties survive for many electoral cycles. A brief examination of the party systems in the region shows a high rate of party collapse but also indicates the robustness of certain parties in the face of crisis. Closer comparisons of the collapsed and surviving parties indicates a significant role for three factors: organization on the ground, a clear position on an enduring issue dimension, and ability to change party leadership. The finding is particularly important for explaining the dynamics of Central and East European party systems because the same characteristics that contribute to longevity are found in lower levels among new parties in the region. Only a small subset of new parties have made choices that would contribute to long-term survival, and such cases are largely confined to those with strong ties to previous long-surviving parties.
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Have Eastern European democracies developed patterns of accountability similar to those existent in their established counterparts? While most accounts of convergence are confined to the world of programmatic reasoning and policy representation, we use a unique data set to cover the wealth of instrumental and emotional modes of linkage building. We apply advanced techniques of model-based cluster analysis to establish a linkage-based typology of political parties. In the East, the contrast of programmatic and clientelistic parties is most essential in the absence of strong regional subdivisions. In the West, the structure of linkage building is characterized by an all-encompassing divide that separates mainstream and challenger parties. Parties in Southern Europe form a distinct Mediterranean type of “machine politics.” The results for affluent post-industrial societies both support and contradict premises of the cartel party hypothesis. For third-wave democracies in the East, our results suggest the persistence of legacies of pre-communist and communist rule against the weight of cumulative democratic experience. In sum, patterns of accountability remained markedly different in the two regions on the eve of the economic crisis in 2008–2009.
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Two ways of reading Havel’s classic essay are proposed. According to the first, the focus is on the peculiarities of the post-totalitarian system, inhabited by the famous greengrocer, where slogans, ritual communication, pervasive manipulation, and arbitrariness prevail and power operates as if automatic and anonymous. The lines of conflict run though each person: everyone is both victim and supporter. Comparison is made with Michel Foucault’s (early) view of power, which similarly rejected seeing power as exercised by some over others, stressing power’s anonymity and pervasiveness. For Foucault, at that stage of his thinking, however, power constitutes “regimes of truth,” whereas for Havel the “power of truth” is a force that has the potential successfully to resist and subvert domination. The power of truth is that of the greengrocer and others “living within the lie” to expose and shatter the world of appearances. Havel calls on them to end their complicity. This might seem moralistic, but Havel’s view was that under post-totalitarian conditions, morality would prove the best strategy. The second reading suggests that the post-totalitarian system is the “extreme version of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society.” But this account of power is at odds with the first, since in this view the powerless would have no prospects of resisting and overcoming domination. Havel’s account is thus political and relevant to other political contexts, raising several empirical questions concerning the dynamics of power and the conditions for the success of morally fueled protest and normative questions concerning power and responsibility.
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Business-firm parties founded on the initiative of a political entrepreneur are a phenomenon of growing importance in contemporary party politics. In practice, these are either commercial companies, whose structure is used for a political project, or new and separate organisations constructed on business principles. This article examines the case of Czech party ANO (“YES”), established by the owner of the Agrofert holding company Andrej Babiš. The party achieved remarkable success in the 2013 Czech general election. The opportunity for ANO’s success was provided by strong voter dissatisfaction, reinforced by the scandalous circumstances of the centre-right government’s fall. This context created a fertile ground for the introduction of a new entity espousing anti-party, anti-corruption, and anti-political sentiments. In ANO’s organisation and functioning, a strengthening of certain traits characteristic of this type of parties is apparent. A robust system for screening party members and representatives has been gradually put into place, and human resources–style techniques of psychological testing were employed at the party’s inception. Furthermore, the power in the party has been wholly centralised around the leader, and the party’s territorial structures assigned merely service tasks. ANO has also maximised its electoral-professional orientation. The strengthening of the typical traits of a business-firm party can be explained by reference to the party’s origin in the business environment and the notions entertained by its leader. In many respects, Babiš’s party has brought the organisational model of a business-firm party to its limits.
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The essay introduces five principles of an approach that helps to combine context sensitivity with generalizing ambition necessary for any serious comparative work. It also offers a list of five areas where East European experts are or should be making major contributions to the “general” knowledge while remaining attentive to the “specificities” of their region. It emphasizes a dialogue among scholars of several theoretical and methodological persuasions. Such synthetic/syncretic studies—also in the study of power and politics—may and often do begin with the work of researchers who construct panoramic vistas (via large-N statistical work) and/or reconstruct mechanisms of individual decision making (via game theoretic models). Nevertheless, they cannot do without the work of those who delve into the details of social processes (via sociological analysis); those who decipher the intricacies of meaning creation, transmission, and decoding (via interpretive work); and those who are able to place all of this in proper historical contexts.
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This article is a case study of the recent impeachment of President Paksas of Lithuania, exploring the heuristic value of Carl Schmitt’s extremalist methodology for research on the institutional dimension of democratic consolidation. This methodology considers the performance of the democratic regime under extreme or exceptional conditions as the test of its consolidation. As presidential and semipresidential regimes are predisposed to evolve into authoritarian regimes and delegative democracies, effective use of the impeachment procedure can be considered to be the positive Schmittean test of the state of democratic consolidation for a political system involved in democratic transition.
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Despite the central place of democratization studies in comparative politics, scholars still lack both theory and empirical evidence to understand institutional change in hybrid regimes (characterized by a collapse of one authoritarian regime and failure to transition to a consolidated democracy). This article makes a contribution to the emerging study of hybrid regimes by developing a middle-range theory for a medium-N set of previously neglected cases in Southeast Europe. It theorizes institutional change as a process initiated by the elites in power but then either accelerated or hampered by structural factors. After decomposing the effects of state capacity, opposition, and international influence in this dynamic and focusing on the process rather than the outcome, it is possible to refine the standard assumptions of democratization paradigm. The study finds that a strong state, a united opposition, and Western assistance can help authoritarian-leaning governments consolidate their coercive power.
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This article examines the political philosophy of Mihai Șora, one of the most important contemporary Romanian philosophers and the former minister of education in Romania’s first post-communist government. After presenting Șora’s unique intellectual trajectory that spans over six decades, the article explores in detail his theory of authenticity and alienation as well as his philosophy of dialogue and civil society. Șora’s writings shed light on the tension between politics and philosophy and challenge us to rethink the relationship between freedom, authenticity, and liberal principles and values. The final section revisits the role of philosophers in the context of the fledgling Eastern European democratic regimes.
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Charity in John of Salisbury’s Policraticus. In the Policraticus, charity is used synonymously to wisdom. Charity accounts for the deeply social character of John of Salisbury’s political philosophy. Together with wisdom it rests at the core of the treatise, tying together all the subtopics into one cohesive system. Charity is essential for one to truly be a philosopher. In opposition to avarice, it involves the detachment from earthly goods and the manifested love towards one’s peers. In addition, it has a regulatory function, being the origin of all virtues.
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Interview with Alain Finkielkraut by Eugenie Bastie.
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Tematsko središte ovoga djela je produbljenje, koje držim važnim, razloga na temelju kojih podržavam tezu da je tehnička globalizacija osuđena zamijeniti zbiljsku ekonomsku globalizaciju. Postoje razlozi za ustanoviti značenje i težinu teze. Posrijedi je diskurs zbog kojeg valja isključiti, između ostalog, da se aktualna kriza, koja se uglavnom smatra ekonomskom, može riješiti sanacijom ekonomskog (kapitalističkog ili ne), moralnog, religioznog, političkog (demokratskog ili totalitarnog) tipa. Štoviše, transformacija svijeta bitno je dublja od dubine u kojoj kultura nastoji dešifrirati »krizu« našeg vremena.
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Živimo u čudnim vremenima, pomalo kao da živimo u neizvjesnosti između dvije priče koje obje govore o svijetu koji je postao »globalan«. Jedna od njih nam je poznata. Ritam joj udaraju vijesti s fronta velikog svjetskog natjecanja, a strelica vremena joj je rast. Jasna je kao dan što se tiče onoga što zahtijeva i promiče, ali je obilježava iznimna zbrka što se tiče njezinih posljedica. Druga bi se, naprotiv, mogla nazvati jasnom što se tiče onoga što se upravo događa, ali je mutna s obzirom na ono što zahtijeva, s obzirom na odgovor koji treba dati na ono što se upravo događa.
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Conflicts can only be solved if the conflicting parties find a common ground, and making peace achieved only by stressing what these parties have in common. And yet every conflict always already implies that there is something “in common”: the fight takes place on a common ground and the opponents are united by the same will to possess, by a common object around which their opposed needs come to clash. It might therefore be rather through the absolute elimination of everything held“in common” that conflicts can be overcome, or rather put to work in a constructive manner. Through the works of Rancière, Glissant, Blanchot, and Esposito, the idea emerges that conflicts can be transformed into a positive occurrence through a common struggle to invalidate the logic that determines the nature of the object up for dispute, the existence of the place from which to fight for it, and the role that opponents play in a common political arena. But this perspective ultimately demands that those who fight this logic renounce having anything “in common,” save for the constant work of destroying their common identity.
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Inspired by the pioneering work of Robert R. Williams and Axel Honneth, this article offers a new lens through which to consider Hegel’s infamous ‘rabble problem.’ By rethinking the conflict between the rabble and the State as a conflict between intersubjective and institutional recognition—generating a failure of reciprocal recognition—I suggest that there is embedded in Hegel's right of necessity a right of resistance that the rabble may justifiably claim in their struggle for recognition. The existence of the rabble, I ultimately suggest, is therefore not an inevitable consequence of the State, but an indication that the State has itself failed to concretize the universal consciousness of Spirit.
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In 1892, Maxim Gorky made his debut as a writer with Makar Chudra, a short story whose subject and plot were clearly reminiscent of a poem by Pushkin published in 1824. Young Gorky built his first story as a resonant chamber that echoed both Pushkin’s voice and the ideas of German philosopher Nietzsche. In 1975, director Emil Loteanu makes Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven, a film based on Gorky’s Makar Chudra, refashioning a cultural representation of freedom unshackled by the constraints of modern civilization. This article explores the intertextual sources of the film, as well as the shifts of meaning and cultural agendas, which come along with these re-elaborations of the idea of freedom.
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The review of: Andras Sajo. Limiting Government: An Introduction to Constitutionalism. Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999. 292 pp.
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