The article elaborates on Slovakia’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It analyses both internal and external factors which impacted on the process and introduces the main political actors in the “NATO or neutrality” debate. Particular attention was paid to the domestic factors, mainly political rivalries between the People’s Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and the rest of the political scene. The author argues that the quest for NATO membership was sacrificed for the sake of current political struggle, which resulted in Bratislava’s exclusion from the first group of Eastern European invitees. Therefore, the concept of neutrality and the idea of balancing between East and West were created for ad hoc reasons, rather than being a genuine geopolitical alternative formed by Slovakia’s political elite.
The aim of this article is to present the Visegrád Group’s position towards the contemporary European migrant crisis. The author seeks to answer two main questions: what is the degree of coherence of the Group’s position and what are the internal factors of the V4’s stance towards the crisis? The article analyses the political situation in the Group’s member states, the V4’s stance towards the earliest propositions concerning the migrant crisis, its fight against the implementation of the mandatory quotas, its stance towards the implementation of the EU’s decisions and internal factors of the V4’s policies. The author argues that although the members of the Group differ in their approach to many international issues, their attitude towards the crisis is very similar.
The process of weakening of parliaments, and, at the same time, the stronger position of governments’ powers are key themes in the ongoing debate on the state of liberal democracy. Research on these issues tends to take a macro perspective, overlooking or underestimating the importance of the individuals at the centre of this process. This article analyses the change in the socio-political profile of Polish MPs in the 21st century. It discusses the share of women in the Sejm and the demographic variables of MPs: their age, tenure, and the education level. Moreover, electoral results were analysed, measuring the strength of the single mandate and the legitimacy of parliament as a whole.
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