Search results

1

The Word of God Comes into the Voting Booth. Church Attendance and Political Involvement in East Central Europe during the Early 1990s

100%

Radu B. M.

Polish Sociological Review

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2014

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vol. 184

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issue 4

451-466

EN

In this research I explore the effect of religious denomination and belonging on political participation in former communist countries of East Central Europe after the fall of communism. In the early 1990s, mostly as a response to forced secularization during communism, authors heralded a massive religious revival in the countries formerly belonging to the Eastern Bloc. In this paper I show that the re-discovery of God and church was not equally popular in all countries. Moreover, I explore the links between religious participation and political participation and I find no uniform transnational effect of denomination. Rather, the Eurobarometer survey data from the early 1990s suggests that the ways in which religious believing and belonging influence political participation at the beginning of democratization is context driven. Indeed, one of the strengths of this paper resides in my attempt to capture the religious context in post-communist Europe shortly after its collapse. I thus contribute to a better understanding of how religious and political involvement are intertwined during early transition in East Central Europe. In the conclusion, I advocate the need for adequately taking context into consideration, especially given its dynamic and multi-faceted nature.

2

Die „innere Kolonisation“ in den preußischen Ostprovinzen um 1900 als Muster für die ostmitteleuropäischen Landreformen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg? Plädoyer für eine transnationale Perspektive auf ein konstitutives Element der Nationalstaatsbildung

88%

Müller U.

Střed. Časopis pro mezioborová studia Střední Evropy 19. a 20. století. / Centre. Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies of Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

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2014

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vol. 6

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issue 2

9-29

EN

Comparing Prussian settlement policies and the founding of “Rentengüter” by inner colonization around 1900 with the East-Central European land reforms of the interwar period initially exposes very diverse motivational structures behind both cases, which thus resulted in interactions for social, economic and political reasons with demographic and nationalist aims. In both cases, the perception of a social crisis endangering the system’s stability and the proclamation of “national interests” by the reforms’ protagonists played – albeit in diff erent ways – a crucial role in overcoming the resistance of the landowners as well as the restraint of the economic and educational elites against such a massive intervention in property rights. Th erefore, we could assume that – in addition to the unstable situation of the post-war period – long past experiences with settlement projects and/or the perception of such projects have had an infl uence on the design and implementation of land reforms. Even before the First World War, the Prussian-German inner colonization was not the only attempt to strengthen the rural middle class by parcelling large estates in Central Europe. However, it was a relatively early, relatively systematic and – from a socio-political and agricultural point of view – even relatively successful attempt. One could say that the opposing forces (Prussia/Germany and Poland) learned and copied from one another – a pattern well known from research on nationalism. But the German inner colonization had an important role model outside the German-Polish nationality struggle, too. Additional historical research about the details of this cultural transfer is certainly needed. Just for the explanation of the diff erent conceptions of East Central European land reforms, it would be important to learn more about the resonance of the Prussian settlement policy, of the debates on grain selfsufficiency or of the discussion about Germany as an agricultural or industrial state in diff erent parts of the Habsburg monarchy. Th is is especially true for the theorists and practitioners of the land reform movement in the Habsburg monarchy successor states. The adoption of these concepts certainly did not advance by only reading newspapers and books. German universities were important places of study, research facilities for national-economists and the political sciences, there were international agricultural conferences and cooperative associations. Th erefore, a transnational history of land reforms as a central element of the agrarianist ideology and politics is an important task for further historiographical research.

3

A model of strategic preemption: Why do post-communists hurt themselves?

88%

Kamiński M. M., Nalepa M.

Decyzje

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2014

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issue 21

31-65

EN

Why do political actors pass legislation that seemingly hurts them? Lustration laws limit access to public offi ce of the ancien regime's collaborators and hurt members of post-communist parties in East-Central Europe. So why has lustration in Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria been passed when post-communist parties held parliamentary majorities? Why did the postcommunist party in Romania switch from no-lustration to pro-lustration after the 1992 elections? We explain this phenomenon by electoral timing and rules of procedure in legislatures. Specifi cally, we develop an agenda-setter model with a fi nite number of parties, imperfect information, and multiple potential medians. Our main argument can be summarized as follows: Suppose that the Postcommunists do not introduce any lustration bill and then lose proposal power in elections. If Anti-communists come to power, they are sure to introduce a harsher bill, and the median of the legislature may prefer such a bill to a no-bil status quo. Post-communists can prevent such a scenario by implementing a mild bill themselves. If they manage to appease the new parliamentary median, they will block a harsher bill that would be implemented after they lose power. Additional results show how electoral perspectives and uncertainty affect and modify this typical scenario. We test our model with an exhaustive analysis of all cases from East- Central Europe that meet our assumptions that a Postcommunist party is in power and no lustration bill is already in force.

4

Western Frankish Chroniclers’ Accounts about the Bohemian and Central European History in the 10th and First Half of the 11th Century

88%

Izdný J.

Prague Papers on the History of International Relations

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2017

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issue 1

7-22

EN

The study summarizes the information about Bohemia (and East Central Europe in general) that is given by the Western Frankish chronicles of the 10th and first half of the 11th centuries. These contributions were mostly omitted or refused by general majority of the Czech historiography. Recent changes of attitude to the relevance of these sources could bring a new view on these sources. The information about Bohemia contained in these sources could also help us to expose a possible relations and stereotypes about our region in Western Europe in the 10th and 11th century.

5

Issues In Research on the Communist Memory Politics in the Countries of East-Central Europe

88%

Malczewska-Pawelec D., Pawelec T.

Historyka Studia Metodologiczne

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2021

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vol. 51

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issue Spec. iss.

323-339

EN

The authors discuss possibilities and limits for applying a research model of the study of memory politics, originally developed by them with the aim to research the Polish case only, to other countries of East Central Europe which after the WW II formed the sphere of the Soviet domination. They pose a question whether it should be appropriate to combine it with the so called transnational approach.

6

Vision of East Central Europe in the thoughts of Polish intellectual elites of a 1989 turning point

88%

Peciakowski T.

Political Preferences

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2018

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issue 20

23-42

EN

The thesis presented in this article advances that creation of the idea of East Central Europe, which was shaped by the social elite of Central-European nations since the 50s, played an essential role on the turn of 1989. The creation of such idea laid foundations of political talks and treaties on the recognition of borders. It reduced mutual claims and helped avoid conflict of borders and ethnic riots. Discussions between the elite of border nations reduced mutual prejudices and stereotypes, also in the context of relationships between the entire societies. In Poland, the deliberations on the idea of East Central Europe had later determined prerogatives of foreign policy conducted by the first non-communist governments and had become a manifestation of the fact that the country on the Vistula River had always been part of European civilization, separated by the Iron Curtain for several decades of the second half of 20th century.

7

The axiological dimension of the debate on the place of East Central Europe within Europe

88%

Nowak L.

Przegląd Zachodni

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2023

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issue Special Issue 2023

7-26

EN

This article analyses the discussion concerning the place of East Central Europe in the European Union. The author focuses on issues related to political axiology. Analysing the statements of selected authors and politicians, mostly from Poland and Hungary, he tries to determine what values are at stake in this dispute. In the author’s view, the two fundamental areas of discussion are the attitude towards liberalism, and the future of the nation and the nation state. The article ends with a forecast of the possible consequences of this dispute.

8

‘Multiple Sonderwegs.’ The Specificity of Historical Development of East Central Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century (Introductory Remarks)

88%

Janowski M.

Acta Poloniae Historica

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2015

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vol. 111

EN

This introductory article offers intellectual frames and historical context to the subsequent collection of essays. There are two questions their authors try and answer: First, what discussions on the respective specificities of historical development were carried out in various countries of East Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Second, what was the scope of topics to be discussed, whereas their aim is to interweave this description or analysis of the debates with posing the question regarding the core of the matter – and this by showing a series of case studies where the approach connected, in some way or another, with the peculiar path concept might seem useful. For the purpose of this volume, the notion of peculiar path is approached in a possibly broad context. The structure of the nineteenth-century city, formation of a modern national awareness: such problems are suitable, according to the authors, for research in view of multiplicity of peculiar paths: rather than highways along which the Zeitgeist of a nation or humanity streaks, these would be medium-rank and medium-sized roads on which medium-scale processes and occurrences roll along.

9

Concepts of state and nation in Western discourses. Stereotyping Eastern Europe and East Central Europe

75%

Hahn H. H.

Český časopis historický (The Czech Historical Review)

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2023

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vol. 121

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issue 2

355-364

EN

In Western discourses, the terms state and nation embrace very different concepts, which have undergone much change throughout the last millennium. The term nation was mostly connected with political participation. The stronger visibility of state-building processes was always the consequence of a necessity to create concrete legal institutions. In the general perspective, international systems differentiated between empires and (smaller) nation states. Stereotypes are produced by emotionalizing the perception of nations and states. A closer analysis shows that Western discourses about Eastern Europe and East Central Europe express a colonial attitude, because they present quite similar images and functions about Asia and Africa.

10

Education Legitimates Income Inequality: Normative Beliefs in Early Post-Communist and Market-oriented Nations

75%

Evans M. D. R., Kelley J.

Polish Sociological Review

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2017

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vol. 200

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issue 4

441-463

EN

Using data from large, representative national samples in in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands, we examine moral norms about just rewards for education. Comparing these norms in East Central Europe shortly after Communism-where the dominant ideology was egalitarian, schooling free, rewards to education modest, and alternative investments absent-and in market-oriented societies where the opposite held, provides insight into the influence of institutional arrangements on moral norms. We find that the publics in all these countries favor large rewards for education (which legitimates substantial income inequality), showing that these moral norms are resilient to institutional arrangements. These results align with Aristotle’s claim that people believe job performance merits reward because it makes valuable contributions. They undermine alternative theories: credentialism, radical egalitarianism, and the hegemonic power of dominant political elites. These results also undermine economists’ human capital arguments insofar as they are seen as a moral justification for income inequality.

11

Bitterly Triumphant: The Biologisation of National Character in the Twentieth-Century East Central Europe

75%

Górny M.

Acta Poloniae Historica

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2015

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vol. 111

EN

In early twentieth century racial ideologies and racial anthropology penetrated the traditional concepts of national specificity. It was a rule all over Western Europe, though Germany was clearly the leader both in ideological and institutional terms. In East Central Europe this development was accelerated by an increased intellectual influence of German universities. First World War marked the peak of these processes. Racial anthropology was expected to deliver a scientific interpretation of the continental conflict. In East Central Europe it was equally an argument in support of ethnic and territorial claims. The article discusses eight examples of regional theories based on discursive connections between race and nation: Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Finland, Romania, Lithuania, and Bohemia. Their authors were experts: professional anthropologists, geographers, ethnologists and medical scientists. Generally it can be argued that all of these theories were successful. A considerable part of them (notably the Serb, Polish, Finnish) contributed to the construction of ‘national unity’ of the newly formed states. Others, despite their failure to do so, were instrumental in the formation of national movements and strengthened the idea of national peculiarity. Almost all of them succeeded in entering the mainstream of the European racial sciences in the interwar period. Consequently, their authors made considerable careers in the academia. But in long run the post-1945 evolution of physical anthropology marginalized racial theories. After the collapse of the Third Reich what had been the mainstream of physical anthropology gradually turned into a scientific and ideological Sonderweg. The experts dealt with in this article caught up to the art of modernity that unexpectedly run out of fashion.

12

Between Appropriation and Rivalry: Some Remarks on the Concept of East Central Europe in Recent Anglo-American and German Historiography

63%

Augustynowicz C.

Prace Filologiczne. Literaturoznawstwo

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2019

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issue 9(12) cz.1

163-174

EN

The present article follows some arguments that define East Central Europe on the fundament of a carefully selected choice of synthetically relevant literature, which shaped, profiled, and modified the discussion on the spatial-historical concept of East Central Europe in the last twenty-five years in English and German language.The article’s structure has the following three sections: European Patterns and Differentiated Functions (Wandycz), Expanding Concepts and Decentralized Perspectives: The Turn of theMillennia (Longworth, Johnson, Bideleux/ Jeffries, Niederhauser, Roth), Common Patterns and Linking Memory: Two Recent Examples (Puttkamer, Bahlcke/Rhodewald/Wünsch). With the intention to correspond to the present volume’s fundamental concept and main task, the article and its summary discuss whether there happened a shift from appropriation to rivalry in historiographical operationalization of the term “East Central Europe” in the last decades.

13

Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w „Zderzeniu cywilizacji…” Samuela P. Huntingtona. Komentarze z perspektywy ćwierćwiecza

63%

Dębicki M.

Kultura i Społeczeństwo

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2020

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vol. 64

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issue 3

143-167

PL

The article attempts to relate one of the theses of Samuel P. Huntington’s famous The Clash of Civilizations to the socio-political reality of contemporary East Central Europe. The question is to what extent the so-called civilizational fault line – the line separating the zones of western and eastern Christianity – explains the socio-political processes taking place in this part of the continent, on either side of the line. Citing a number of conditions – in Lithuania in the north to Greece in the south – the author argues that Huntington’s metaphor has limited explanatory value. He draws particular attention to the shifts that have occurred in the course of the fault line since the mid-1990s (when Huntington’s book was published), the heterogeneity of socio-political relations on either side, and the civilizational borderland created around it.

14

Ungarisch-preussische Handelsbeziehungen im Mittelalter

63%

Pósán L.

Zapiski Historyczne

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2018

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vol. 83

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issue 4

115-145

EN

The aim of the article is to present trade contacts between Prussia and Hungary from the end of the 13th century to the mid-15th century. The problem has hitherto remained beyond the interest of researchers dealing with trade relations. On the basis of the Hanseatic, Polish and Hungarian sources the author analyses the structure of goods being traded, participants of the trade and trade routes. The author points out the connection between the development of trade contacts with political relations in East Central Europe. After the death of King Louis I of Hungary (1382) the trade conducted between Hungary and Prussia, which went through the Polish territories, became heavily dependent on the balance of power between the Teutonic Order, the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary. The author underlines that the range of goods which were the subject of the trade started to grow at the end of the 13th century. Apart from metals (copper, iron, silver) Hungarian merchants sold to Prussian merchants wax, furs, wine, cheap cloth and southern products such as fruit, spice and condiments. In the 15th century Melnaterite (Kupferwasser), the mineral used in dyeing, was exported from Upper Hungary to the Baltic zone. Merchants from Prussian towns exported to Hungary goods imported from West Europe, mainly cloth. Until the mid-15th century the main role in Prussian trade with Hungary was played by merchants from Toruń, while in the second half of the 15th century their place was taken over by merchants from Gdańsk.

DE

Ziel des Artikels ist die Präsentation der Handelskontakte zwischen Preußen und Ungarn vom Ende des 13. bis zur Mitte de 15. Jahrhunderts. Diese Problematik stand in der bisherigen Forschung im Schatten des Interesses für die Handelskontakte zwischen Polen und Ungarn. Auf der Grundlage von Quellen der Hanse, aus Polen und Ungarn analysiert der Autor die Warenstruktur des Handels, seine Beteiligten und die Handelswege. Er zeigt Verbindungen zwischen der Entwicklung der Handelskontakte und den politischen Verhältnissen in Mittelosteuropa auf. Vor allem in der Zeit nach dem Tod von Ludwig I. (1382) geriet der Handel zwischen Ungarn und Preußen über polnisches Gebiet in starke Abhängigkeit vom Kräfteverhältnis zwischen dem Deutschen Orden, dem Königreich Polen und dem Königreich Ungarn. Der Autor zeigt auf, wie seit dem Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts das Warensortiment im Handel wuchs. Außer Metallen (Kupfer, Eisen, Silber) verkauften die Kaufleute aus Ungarn den Kaufleuten aus Preußen Wachs, Felle, Wein, billige Tuche und Waren aus dem Süden (Früchte, Wurzeln, Gewürze). Im 15. Jahrhundert wurde Melanterit (Kupferwasser, Eisenvitriol) aus Ungarn an die Ostsee ausgeführt, ein Mineral, das unter anderem im Färbergewerbe benutzt wurde. Kaufleute aus den preußischen Städten exportierten nach Ungarn Waren, die sie aus Westeuropa importiert hatten, vor allem Tuch. Bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts spielten Kaufleute aus Thorn die bedeutendste Rolle im preußischen Handel mit Ungarn, in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts wurde ihr Platz von Kaufleuten aus Danzig eingenommen.

15

Peace-Making and Geography afer the First World War

45%

Górny M.

Res Gestae. Czasopismo Historyczne

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2022

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vol. 14

139-149

EN

During the First World War, and later, geographers from East Central and South-Eastern Europe formulated several argumentative strategies to support territorial demands. Initially, the predominating idea was the one of ethnic borders, which were an expression of the right to self-determination as well as the most significant correction for strategic and economic justifications. Soon, however, the experts present at the peace conference became convinced that arguments other than ethnic arguments should be used. These arguments contained, among other motifs, culture and civilization. The most active among the experts in this respect were eminent scholars from Poland (e.g. Eugeniusz Romer), Czechoslovakia (e.g. Jan Kapras), Ukraine (Stepan Rudnytsky), Yugoslavia (Jovan Cvijić), Romania (Simion Mehedinţi) and Germany (Albrecht Penck, Wilhelm Volz). Most of them continued this line of thinking in the inter-war period, contributing to the creation of their respective national varieties of geopolitics.

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The Word of God Comes into the Voting Booth. Church Attendance and Political Involvement in East Central Europe during the Early 1990s

Die „innere Kolonisation“ in den preußischen Ostprovinzen um 1900 als Muster für die ostmitteleuropäischen Landreformen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg? Plädoyer für eine transnationale Perspektive auf ein konstitutives Element der Nationalstaatsbildung

A model of strategic preemption: Why do post-communists hurt themselves?

Western Frankish Chroniclers’ Accounts about the Bohemian and Central European History in the 10th and First Half of the 11th Century

Issues In Research on the Communist Memory Politics in the Countries of East-Central Europe

Vision of East Central Europe in the thoughts of Polish intellectual elites of a 1989 turning point

The axiological dimension of the debate on the place of East Central Europe within Europe

‘Multiple Sonderwegs.’ The Specificity of Historical Development of East Central Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century (Introductory Remarks)

Concepts of state and nation in Western discourses. Stereotyping Eastern Europe and East Central Europe

Education Legitimates Income Inequality: Normative Beliefs in Early Post-Communist and Market-oriented Nations

Bitterly Triumphant: The Biologisation of National Character in the Twentieth-Century East Central Europe

Between Appropriation and Rivalry: Some Remarks on the Concept of East Central Europe in Recent Anglo-American and German Historiography

Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w „Zderzeniu cywilizacji…” Samuela P. Huntingtona. Komentarze z perspektywy ćwierćwiecza

Ungarisch-preussische Handelsbeziehungen im Mittelalter

Peace-Making and Geography afer the First World War