Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254231196318
Kacper Szulecki
To understand the political dimension of dissident legacies, we need first to understand the components that “made” the dissidents and follow their reconfiguration after 1989, leading to initial empowerment followed by gradual demise of the liberal post-dissident elite. Dissidence in the form that first appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s in central and eastern Europe constituted a particular mode of political practice, combining open, non-violent dissent with universalist moral claims. The phenomenon of dissidentism was transnational, as political empowerment of oppositionists was achieved through a particular network of relationships between domestic audiences, repressive regimes, and Western media, social movements, trade unions, political parties, and policymakers. The specificities of the dissidents’ empowerment can partly explain key features of post-dissident politics and the visible backlash against former prominent dissidents, which has contributed to the rise of illiberalism and to democratic backsliding. This article traces the post-1989 trajectories of a few who belonged among central Europe’s most prominent representatives in this symbolic category, to try to explain the causes and character of the swift backlash against them—or as Václav Havel put it, their “expulsion from the fairytale.” Three pillars of dissident political power turned into the roots of their demise. First, critics question the dissidents’ uniqueness and rewrite their master narrative. Further, we see a clash of representations that results from the dissidents’ transnational empowerment, and third, the broader anti-elite and anti-intellectual tendencies that always accompanied dissidence as its shadow became amplified by more recent populist rhetoric.
{"title":"Expelled from the Fairytale: The Impact of the Dissident Legacy on Post-1989 Central European Politics","authors":"Kacper Szulecki","doi":"10.1177/08883254231196318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231196318","url":null,"abstract":"To understand the political dimension of dissident legacies, we need first to understand the components that “made” the dissidents and follow their reconfiguration after 1989, leading to initial empowerment followed by gradual demise of the liberal post-dissident elite. Dissidence in the form that first appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s in central and eastern Europe constituted a particular mode of political practice, combining open, non-violent dissent with universalist moral claims. The phenomenon of dissidentism was transnational, as political empowerment of oppositionists was achieved through a particular network of relationships between domestic audiences, repressive regimes, and Western media, social movements, trade unions, political parties, and policymakers. The specificities of the dissidents’ empowerment can partly explain key features of post-dissident politics and the visible backlash against former prominent dissidents, which has contributed to the rise of illiberalism and to democratic backsliding. This article traces the post-1989 trajectories of a few who belonged among central Europe’s most prominent representatives in this symbolic category, to try to explain the causes and character of the swift backlash against them—or as Václav Havel put it, their “expulsion from the fairytale.” Three pillars of dissident political power turned into the roots of their demise. First, critics question the dissidents’ uniqueness and rewrite their master narrative. Further, we see a clash of representations that results from the dissidents’ transnational empowerment, and third, the broader anti-elite and anti-intellectual tendencies that always accompanied dissidence as its shadow became amplified by more recent populist rhetoric.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142563239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254221148489
Barbara J. Falk, Daniela Bouvier-Valenta
A playwright, philosopher, and president, Václav Havel was well known at home and abroad for all his “careers” and contributions. This article compares and contrasts the recognition accorded to Havel at home and abroad, examining differing assessments and aspects of his legacy—his key contributions to politics, history, and the history of ideas. Within the Czech Republic, we refer to processes and types of memorialization such as local media, exhibitions, how Havel is and was referenced in protest, and more “official” memorials. This national process of reclaiming Havel increasingly brings his domestic profile into accord with his long-standing international stature—which was decidedly not the case while he was in political office. By following avenues of evidence and example from institutional and official levels to more decentralized, local, and unofficial initiatives, we explore which aspects of Havel’s own usable past are referenced, which in turn illuminates how collective memory is shaped. The process of memorializing Havel and paying tribute to his ideas and legacy is necessarily unfinished. Although he died in 2011, how Havel is remembered will continue to evolve, along with larger national and international discussions of dissidence and the impact of Charter 77, as both he and the Velvet Revolution continue to resonate in movements for political change in authoritarian regimes.
{"title":"Václav Havel Posthumous Reclamation of a National Hero?","authors":"Barbara J. Falk, Daniela Bouvier-Valenta","doi":"10.1177/08883254221148489","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254221148489","url":null,"abstract":"A playwright, philosopher, and president, Václav Havel was well known at home and abroad for all his “careers” and contributions. This article compares and contrasts the recognition accorded to Havel at home and abroad, examining differing assessments and aspects of his legacy—his key contributions to politics, history, and the history of ideas. Within the Czech Republic, we refer to processes and types of memorialization such as local media, exhibitions, how Havel is and was referenced in protest, and more “official” memorials. This national process of reclaiming Havel increasingly brings his domestic profile into accord with his long-standing international stature—which was decidedly not the case while he was in political office. By following avenues of evidence and example from institutional and official levels to more decentralized, local, and unofficial initiatives, we explore which aspects of Havel’s own usable past are referenced, which in turn illuminates how collective memory is shaped. The process of memorializing Havel and paying tribute to his ideas and legacy is necessarily unfinished. Although he died in 2011, how Havel is remembered will continue to evolve, along with larger national and international discussions of dissidence and the impact of Charter 77, as both he and the Velvet Revolution continue to resonate in movements for political change in authoritarian regimes.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"241 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142563243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254231196319
Michal Kopeček
This article’s central question is how former dissidents and their engagement in post-1989 nascent democratic politics contributed to the emergence of what was later retrospectively labelled the “liberal consensus.” I look at the earliest stages of this consensus before it started to lock in the conditionality of the EU accession process. To this end, I first discuss the “liberal consensus” from a retrospective and past prospective perspective. I define the notions of “post-dissent” and liberal politics emerging after 1989 on the dissident platform. I discuss the theoretical background and historical contours of the notion of dissident “politics of consensus.” The empirical core of the study is an analysis of the birth of post-dissident liberal parties in the process of the disintegration of broad consensual democratization movements of the 1989 revolutions. The study offers a comparison of the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish cases, analyzing their similarities and less obvious but significant differences.
{"title":"Post-Dissident Politics and the “Liberal Consensus” in East-Central Europe after 1989","authors":"Michal Kopeček","doi":"10.1177/08883254231196319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231196319","url":null,"abstract":"This article’s central question is how former dissidents and their engagement in post-1989 nascent democratic politics contributed to the emergence of what was later retrospectively labelled the “liberal consensus.” I look at the earliest stages of this consensus before it started to lock in the conditionality of the EU accession process. To this end, I first discuss the “liberal consensus” from a retrospective and past prospective perspective. I define the notions of “post-dissent” and liberal politics emerging after 1989 on the dissident platform. I discuss the theoretical background and historical contours of the notion of dissident “politics of consensus.” The empirical core of the study is an analysis of the birth of post-dissident liberal parties in the process of the disintegration of broad consensual democratization movements of the 1989 revolutions. The study offers a comparison of the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish cases, analyzing their similarities and less obvious but significant differences.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142563241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254231219752
Agáta Šústová Drelová
During the 1980s, Catholic dissidents in Slovakia constructed divergent modes of moral reasoning. While national democratic Catholic dissidents looked to universal Catholic morality, nationalist Catholic dissidents anchored their moral reasoning in nationalized ethics. Their respective modes of moral reasoning were crucially formed in the making of national Catholic memory. If both appreciated Slovak sovereignty, the former prioritized democracy, human rights, and dialogue across religious and ethnic divides, the latter national independence over democracy. This in turn determined how and when they pursued Slovak cultural and political sovereignty across the boundary of 1989.
{"title":"An Arrested Dialectic: The National Past and (Post-)Dissident Catholic Moral Reasoning in Slovakia","authors":"Agáta Šústová Drelová","doi":"10.1177/08883254231219752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231219752","url":null,"abstract":"During the 1980s, Catholic dissidents in Slovakia constructed divergent modes of moral reasoning. While national democratic Catholic dissidents looked to universal Catholic morality, nationalist Catholic dissidents anchored their moral reasoning in nationalized ethics. Their respective modes of moral reasoning were crucially formed in the making of national Catholic memory. If both appreciated Slovak sovereignty, the former prioritized democracy, human rights, and dialogue across religious and ethnic divides, the latter national independence over democracy. This in turn determined how and when they pursued Slovak cultural and political sovereignty across the boundary of 1989.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142563246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-01Epub Date: 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254231168409
Muriel Blaive
Post-Communist memory politics has occupied a highly disputed symbolic position ever since the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. This article presents the case of Czech student leaders of the revolution, especially Monika Pajerová (since 2002 Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová), who co-organized the 17 November 1989 demonstration that initiated the fall of the Communist regime. It focuses on the social and political movement "Thank You and Goodbye!" ("Děkujeme, odejděte!") organized by the same students in 1999. The article analyzes this particular moment as a turning point in post-Communist development: the students' genuine concerns and their sincere analysis of the democrats' own shortcomings in and after 1989 created the background for a new ideology of anti-Communist remembrance that would become prevalent in the Czech public sphere in the 2010s. The post-Communist regime's refusal to integrate the Communist period as a legitimate part of national history prevented the building of an appeased democratic society. It was the original sin of the post-Communist regime, one that would create the need to rewrite the national script concerning Communist history.
{"title":"From Dissidence to Heroism: Constructing an Ideal Post-Communist Identity in the Czech Republic.","authors":"Muriel Blaive","doi":"10.1177/08883254231168409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231168409","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Post-Communist memory politics has occupied a highly disputed symbolic position ever since the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. This article presents the case of Czech student leaders of the revolution, especially Monika Pajerová (since 2002 Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová), who co-organized the 17 November 1989 demonstration that initiated the fall of the Communist regime. It focuses on the social and political movement \"Thank You and Goodbye!\" (\"Děkujeme, odejděte!\") organized by the same students in 1999. The article analyzes this particular moment as a turning point in post-Communist development: the students' genuine concerns and their sincere analysis of the democrats' own shortcomings in and after 1989 created the background for a new ideology of anti-Communist remembrance that would become prevalent in the Czech public sphere in the 2010s. The post-Communist regime's refusal to integrate the Communist period as a legitimate part of national history prevented the building of an appeased democratic society. It was the original sin of the post-Communist regime, one that would create the need to rewrite the national script concerning Communist history.</p>","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"38 3","pages":"845-864"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11530335/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142569915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-24DOI: 10.1177/08883254231212489
Courtney Blackington, Antoaneta L. Dimitrova, Iulia Ionita, Milada Anna Vachudova
Several central and eastern European countries have experienced democratic erosion of different kinds. While the Czech Republic and Poland have faced democratic backsliding, for example, others, such as Bulgaria and Romania, are better characterized as struggling with democratic stagnation. Regardless of the type of democratic erosion, robust protest movements have challenged democratic erosion. What motivates protestors who face different types of democratic erosion to take to the streets? What kinds of political and institutional changes do they seek? In this article, we theorize that protestors experiencing democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing the political practices that have developed over the last decade. By contrast, protestors facing democratic stagnation emphasize the need to change long-standing institutions and practices that have existed since the country transitioned to democracy in 1989. To test our hypotheses, we conducted original surveys of pro-democracy protestors in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania. We found that protestors in states where incumbents have pursued rapid democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing practices that have taken root over the last decade. By contrast, protestors living through long-standing democratic stagnation emphasize changing the practices and institutions that have emerged since the transition to democracy in 1989. Moreover, we found that in all four countries protestors had mobilized to fight democratic erosion. Also, respondents in all four countries believed that the main impact of the protests was to increase political awareness and spread information about democracy.
{"title":"Mobilizing against Democratic Backsliding: What Motivates Protestors in Central and Eastern Europe?","authors":"Courtney Blackington, Antoaneta L. Dimitrova, Iulia Ionita, Milada Anna Vachudova","doi":"10.1177/08883254231212489","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231212489","url":null,"abstract":"Several central and eastern European countries have experienced democratic erosion of different kinds. While the Czech Republic and Poland have faced democratic backsliding, for example, others, such as Bulgaria and Romania, are better characterized as struggling with democratic stagnation. Regardless of the type of democratic erosion, robust protest movements have challenged democratic erosion. What motivates protestors who face different types of democratic erosion to take to the streets? What kinds of political and institutional changes do they seek? In this article, we theorize that protestors experiencing democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing the political practices that have developed over the last decade. By contrast, protestors facing democratic stagnation emphasize the need to change long-standing institutions and practices that have existed since the country transitioned to democracy in 1989. To test our hypotheses, we conducted original surveys of pro-democracy protestors in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania. We found that protestors in states where incumbents have pursued rapid democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing practices that have taken root over the last decade. By contrast, protestors living through long-standing democratic stagnation emphasize changing the practices and institutions that have emerged since the transition to democracy in 1989. Moreover, we found that in all four countries protestors had mobilized to fight democratic erosion. Also, respondents in all four countries believed that the main impact of the protests was to increase political awareness and spread information about democracy.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141096699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-15DOI: 10.1177/08883254231182999
Conor O’Dwyer
If third-wave democratization propelled gains in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual, and pansexual (LGBTQIAP) empowerment globally, does the contemporary wave of democratic backsliding imperil those gains? To what extent does the potential threat from such institutional erosion depend on the presence of right-wing populists in government, i.e., backlash? Can both threats be moderated by international pressure? Here, I present a theoretical framework for analyzing the interaction of backsliding, backlash, and international leverage as they impact LGBTQIAP empowerment. I then empirically probe this model’s plausibility by analyzing annual changes in LGBT empowerment through 2020 in fourteen new democracies in east central Europe. (The empirical analysis uses the narrower category “LGBT” because of data limitations.) I find that when neither backsliding nor backlash is present, LGBT empowerment expands regardless of international leverage. When both are present, however, international leverage is critical. If leverage is low, I find that LGBT empowerment declines, and the magnitude of losses in empowerment is greater than the magnitude of gains when neither is present. If leverage is high, simultaneous backlash and backsliding are associated with gains in LGBT empowerment. Even if the latter gains may be seen more as “pink-washing” than as sustainable and genuine change, these findings underline the importance of paying attention to international context when analyzing LGBTQIAP politics as the third wave ebbs.
如果说第三波民主化推动了全球女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别者、同性恋者、双性人、无性人和泛性人（LGBTQIAP）的赋权，那么当代的民主倒退浪潮是否会危及这些成果？这种制度性侵蚀的潜在威胁在多大程度上取决于政府中右翼民粹主义者的存在，即反弹？国际压力能否缓和这两种威胁？在此，我提出了一个理论框架，用于分析倒退、反弹和国际影响力之间的相互作用对 LGBTQIAP 赋权的影响。然后，我通过分析欧洲中东部 14 个新民主国家到 2020 年 LGBT 权利的年度变化，实证性地探究了这一模型的合理性。(由于数据限制，实证分析使用了较窄的 "LGBT "类别）。我发现，当既不存在倒退也不存在反弹时，无论国际影响力如何，LGBT 的赋权都会扩大。然而，当两者都存在时，国际杠杆作用就显得至关重要。如果杠杆率低，我发现 LGBT 的赋权就会下降，而且在两者都不存在的情况下，赋权损失的幅度要大于赋权增加的幅度。如果杠杆率较高，则同时出现的反弹和倒退与 LGBT 赋权的增加有关。即使后一种收益可能更多地被视为 "粉色洗礼"，而非可持续的真正变革，但这些发现强调了在第三次浪潮退潮之际分析 LGBTQIAP 政治时关注国际背景的重要性。
{"title":"Backsliding versus Backlash: Do Challenges to Democracy in East Central Europe Threaten LGBTQIAP Empowerment?","authors":"Conor O’Dwyer","doi":"10.1177/08883254231182999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254231182999","url":null,"abstract":"If third-wave democratization propelled gains in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual, and pansexual (LGBTQIAP) empowerment globally, does the contemporary wave of democratic backsliding imperil those gains? To what extent does the potential threat from such institutional erosion depend on the presence of right-wing populists in government, i.e., backlash? Can both threats be moderated by international pressure? Here, I present a theoretical framework for analyzing the interaction of backsliding, backlash, and international leverage as they impact LGBTQIAP empowerment. I then empirically probe this model’s plausibility by analyzing annual changes in LGBT empowerment through 2020 in fourteen new democracies in east central Europe. (The empirical analysis uses the narrower category “LGBT” because of data limitations.) I find that when neither backsliding nor backlash is present, LGBT empowerment expands regardless of international leverage. When both are present, however, international leverage is critical. If leverage is low, I find that LGBT empowerment declines, and the magnitude of losses in empowerment is greater than the magnitude of gains when neither is present. If leverage is high, simultaneous backlash and backsliding are associated with gains in LGBT empowerment. Even if the latter gains may be seen more as “pink-washing” than as sustainable and genuine change, these findings underline the importance of paying attention to international context when analyzing LGBTQIAP politics as the third wave ebbs.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"158 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140949755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-06DOI: 10.1177/08883254241235628
Peter Spáč, Jozef Zagrapan
The paper analyses the impact of local demography on the electoral strategies of ethnic political parties. We focus on Hungarian parties in Slovakia and their tactics of fielding candidates in the 2014 and 2018 mayoral elections in 4,461 municipalities with competitive elections. We find that local demography is an essential explanatory factor concerning the strategies of ethnic parties. Our results show that in towns where an ethnic minority predominates, ethnic parties are more likely to challenge each other in elections. On the other hand, we find only little support for the split demography hypothesis that ethnic parties will cooperate in such an environment. Although Hungarian parties form alliances in these municipalities, their occurrence is not different than in towns where the same ethnic group dominates the local population. Finally, we observe that in areas where Hungarians are a numerical minority, inter-ethnic alliances are formed, but only by the more moderate ethnic party. In general, the paper shows that the ethnic composition of municipalities can provide incentives to avoid ethnic outbidding as well as to enhance intra-ethnic rivalry.
{"title":"Between Conflict and Cooperation: Electoral Strategies of Ethnic Parties","authors":"Peter Spáč, Jozef Zagrapan","doi":"10.1177/08883254241235628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254241235628","url":null,"abstract":"The paper analyses the impact of local demography on the electoral strategies of ethnic political parties. We focus on Hungarian parties in Slovakia and their tactics of fielding candidates in the 2014 and 2018 mayoral elections in 4,461 municipalities with competitive elections. We find that local demography is an essential explanatory factor concerning the strategies of ethnic parties. Our results show that in towns where an ethnic minority predominates, ethnic parties are more likely to challenge each other in elections. On the other hand, we find only little support for the split demography hypothesis that ethnic parties will cooperate in such an environment. Although Hungarian parties form alliances in these municipalities, their occurrence is not different than in towns where the same ethnic group dominates the local population. Finally, we observe that in areas where Hungarians are a numerical minority, inter-ethnic alliances are formed, but only by the more moderate ethnic party. In general, the paper shows that the ethnic composition of municipalities can provide incentives to avoid ethnic outbidding as well as to enhance intra-ethnic rivalry.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140845961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-11DOI: 10.1177/08883254241229732
Witold Betkiewicz, Anna Radiukiewicz
The main problem addressed in the paper is the relation between politics and administration. The authors try to answer if independent administration exists at the sub-national level in Poland. In a more detailed manner, the question is whether an acceptance of independent administration has been fostered by the dispersion of political power and the experience of participation in important decision-making processes. The data used in the article come from a survey of councillors and in-depth interviews with councillors and clerks. The analysis proved that the councillors’ opinions as to the independence of administration are influenced by their participation in the ruling majority. Opposition members support stricter, more stringent legislative oversight. Majority members, on the contrary, accept greater independence of administration. The result of the study leads also to a conclusion about the importance of monopolization and the influence on administration by the executive and the majority councillors. Administration becomes perceived as a functional part of the majority. A more fundamental conclusion is when there is no programmatic competition between political groupings of councillors, there are no conditions for establishing an administration independent of politics. This outcome completes the relationship noted by Miller and Whitford with the programmatic dimension of political competition.
{"title":"The Political-Administrative Nexus in Sub-National Governance: Exploring the Lack of Independent Administration in Poland","authors":"Witold Betkiewicz, Anna Radiukiewicz","doi":"10.1177/08883254241229732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254241229732","url":null,"abstract":"The main problem addressed in the paper is the relation between politics and administration. The authors try to answer if independent administration exists at the sub-national level in Poland. In a more detailed manner, the question is whether an acceptance of independent administration has been fostered by the dispersion of political power and the experience of participation in important decision-making processes. The data used in the article come from a survey of councillors and in-depth interviews with councillors and clerks. The analysis proved that the councillors’ opinions as to the independence of administration are influenced by their participation in the ruling majority. Opposition members support stricter, more stringent legislative oversight. Majority members, on the contrary, accept greater independence of administration. The result of the study leads also to a conclusion about the importance of monopolization and the influence on administration by the executive and the majority councillors. Administration becomes perceived as a functional part of the majority. A more fundamental conclusion is when there is no programmatic competition between political groupings of councillors, there are no conditions for establishing an administration independent of politics. This outcome completes the relationship noted by Miller and Whitford with the programmatic dimension of political competition.","PeriodicalId":47086,"journal":{"name":"East European Politics and Societies","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140551966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1177/08883254241234621
Agnieszka Bielewska, Ewa Ślęzak-Belowska, Olga Czeranowska
This paper presents a comparative study of cities’ migration policies. By comparing four bigger and four smaller Polish cities and their approaches towards Ukrainian war refugees, we show the differences in support offered by bigger and smaller towns. Polish cities wholeheartedly and spontaneously welcomed Ukrainians fleeing their country after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While bigger cities start from reception and then offer integration activities, smaller ones see the presence of Ukrainians as temporary and identify their needs in terms of immediate humanitarian aid. The extra value of this original research is in documenting the specific moment when those cities have become ethnically diverse. The research includes interviews with the cities’ authorities, panel discussions, and analyses of documents and press articles.
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