The paper surveys the most important current international trends. Based on the most up to date literature, and polemically referring to it, the author demonstrates the appearance of the need for growing unity and cooperation in the world in the field of economy and politics, as it is manifest in several areas. The process has become tangible with the appearance of global capital in the contemporary age, followed by the formation of an international organisation of global scale and by regional integration. The author also demonstrates that the concept of globalisation covers several processes and he also surveys its brief history. Next he studies the possibilities of global culture. In this context he quotes among others the work of I. Wallerstein related to the problematics of the world system, and the role of the US, the EU, Japan and China, and also of the major regions. He also deals with the phenomenon of nationalism, and with the issues of national sovereignty. He devotes major space to the much debated work of Samuel Huntington and refutes it on the basis of recent processes. Partly based on Huntington, he analyses the existing or possible conflicts between the different cultures. He calls attention to the changing and growing global role of China. He also deals with the phenomenon of multiculturalism, with the EU, and particularly with its relationship to NATO, with other regional organisations and their internal conflicts. Finally, he focuses on the EU, in which the constitutional order capable of governing the political and economic activities of the Member States has not yet been created.
The past and present of China, covering several millennia, naturally cannot be squeezed into a single paper, even if it consists of several parts to be published in a sequence. Part I ventures only to offer a brief survey of the complex history of China, covering millennia, up to the establishment of the unified republic. China could be hardly understood without the most important elements of the history of its ideas, the great past and present of its basic political philosophy shaping its statehood, to be summarised by the present writing, before Part II would describe the process of the integration of two of its major areas of a homogenous ethnic minority. Finally, Parts III, IV, and V would offer an analysis of the political, ideological, and economic processes determining China today, and would discuss how the huge country is joining the current processes of world politics. Parts I and II only offer a background to the analysis given in Parts III, IV, and V and aim at summarising the most important findings of an extensive literature presently regarded as standard.
The first two parts of the paper, published in a sequence in Vol. 23, Nos. 3 and 4, surveyed the history of China covering several millennia up to the creation of the united republic. Further on the history of two major areas of national minorities was also presented. Part III published in Vol. 24, No.1 of the periodical studied the relationship between modern China and the United States. Parts IV and V currently published offer an insight into present-day China, outlining the paths, pitfalls and question marks of the 'Chinese miracle'.
Part III of the series of articles published in Nos. 3 and 4 of Vol. 23 of this periodical surveys the relationship between China and the United States, the transformation of those relations, parallel to the major changes of world politics and power structure. The paper studies the period between 1971 and 2004, the time when modernisation took a major leap in China, and while its political structure changed little the role of foreign investors, Chinese industry and exports have grown immensely, and nowadays it has become customary to speak about the Chinese 'miracle'.
It is not unusual in science as in common life that a concept emerges but becomes useless after some time, or, it becomes fashionable then disappears. A scientific concept that initially appeared to be capable of explaining everything, having almost absolute value 'shrinks' to its real content with the development of learning. As such, it fits into the system of often similarly born concepts this time expressing real phenomena, with its true explanatory meaning. 'Modernisation' seems to be one of those concepts. Though the word itself appeared already in the 19th century, it became fashionable in academic literature a couple of decades ago. After World War II and nowadays its real content has unfolded, and the phenomena covered by the concept can be outlined, hence it can be used with real explanatory force in understanding our social phenomena and processes.
The past and present of China, covering several millennia, naturally cannot be squeezed into a single paper, even if it consists of several parts in a sequence. Part I only embarked on offering a brief survey of the complex history of China extending over millennia, up to the establishment of the united republic. The present-day China could be hardly understood without the summary of the most important elements of the history of ideas, the great past and present of its political philosophy shaping its statehood in Part I of the current writing. Part II presents the process of integration of two of its major territories of homogenous ethnic minorities. In fact Parts I and II only offer a background to the analysis to be presented in subsequent Parts and sum up the most important findings of the extensive literature presently regarded as standard.
Society is the decisive force in the relationship between law and society, with its historically developed specificities, economic, political and cultural features. In the early history of a culture and in its first, longer and shorter period of development the social emergence of law is usually related to the given culture and to politics appearing within it, as well as with the unfolding of religion. Consequently politics and its organisation (even if at a rudimentary stage) develop jointly, and law mostly has a religious nature. (Kulcsar, 1982). At a later phase of development religion, politics and law are separated, and are distanced from each other at a pace depending on the speed of cultural development. The relationship between politics and law, however, endures and persists, while religion would be distanced after some shorter or longer period of time, with the emergence of civil society. If they remain in a closer relationship due to the nature of the given society and under cultural effects, the influence of religion, besides politics, would be felt more strongly in law. In the present-day India religion and politics are still significantly linked, despite some signs to the contrary. According to the author's personal experience the country did not present itself as religious in the common sense of the term, yet several religious traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) have been markedly present in thinking. Traditional Hindu religion is still very strong in the country, and its significance has politically grown.
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