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1

Regime change and the future of popular sovereignty

100%

Olearnik Szydłowska P.

Polish Journal of Political Science

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2016

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vol. 2

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issue 2

103-117

EN

Today the notion of popular sovereignty is seen as the standard of political legitimation. However, there is an important theoretical discussion to be had about the helpfulness of this notion since it is not clear who constitutes the ‘people’ or whether ‘the people’ possess the necessary agency in order to enact sovereignty. This discussion takes on practical interest in light of recent popular struggles for democracy, as evidenced by the Arab Spring of 2010-12 as well as the uprisings in Syria. This paper seeks to discover how far these popular revolutions of the early 21st century can be understood as conforming to or diverging from the liberal notion of popular sovereignty derived from the dominant social contract model.

2

THE FORMS OF ORGANIZED CRIME AFTER THE CHANGE OF REGIME IN HUNGARY

88%

Bezsenyi T.

Ante Portas – Studia nad Bezpieczeństwem

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2016

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vol. 1(6) Kryzys ukraiński i jego znaczenie dla bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego: aspekty militarno-polityczne

389-401

EN

In recent years the Hungarian administration of justice trialed some of the most famous murder cases of the 1990’s which were contract killings between organized crime groups. These trials brought up many new information about the life of organized crime gangs and given a better opportunity to criminologists to understand the recent activity of the organized crime gangs. I’m focusing on how organized crime successfully survived the crisis of the regime change. The following research is based on a tight cooperation with the Pest County Police Headquarters where I analyzed criminal files about organized crime gangs after the regime change. The main question of the research was: what sociological and economical factors contributed to the strengthening of organized crime in Hungary? Where can we discover the responsibility of the state? How did state regulation affect organized crime?

3

From Overdecentralization to Overcentralization ? Hungarian Experience in Handling the Crisis at the Local Level

88%

Gellén M.

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

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2014

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vol. 7

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issue 2

51-69

EN

This paper provides a polemic interpretation of recent Hungarian public-administration reforms compared to the opinions that can be found in international scientific literature. The divergence of the various interpretations stems from the different perspectives on the historic context of the development path of the Hungarian municipal administration during the pre- and post-regime change period. The differences in the interpretation of the achievements of the regime change determine whether one would suggest a minor correction or a total replacement - if given the possibility. After briefly describing the public-administration legacy of the communist past and of the post-communist decades, the article delves into the analysis of the financial unsustainability of the highly decentralized local-government system. The analysis builds on the findings of international financiers that operate as policy- transfer powerhouses, as well. Bursting financial tensions led to Hungary’s loan agreement with the IMF in 1996. Although the loan was paid back by 1998, internal systemic inefficiencies stemming from the uneasy compromises of the regime change still had their corroding effect, although vulnerable finances were veiled by occasional conjunctures in the domestic and international economy. In the year 2008, the country became virtually insolvent and again applied for an IMF loan. The IMF itself formulated certain measures to increase the efficiency of the overdecentralized local-government system. Unlike its predecessor, the government that stepped into power in 2010 had the political power to launch systemic corrections in the local-government system. The reforms contained a trade-off : the majority of local competences in exchange for fiscally consolidating local governments. This is labeled as a trade-off between efficiency and democracy by certain authors. It is a fact that the overdecentralized form of local public administration was inefficient and unsustainable. Now there is an opportunity to test whether an overcentralized public administration would be efficient.

4

The Research on Political Elites: Steady vs. Modern Theories

88%

Matushenko O., Kopcewicz G., Olszanecka N., Urbański D., Piechowiak-Lamparska J., Bryc A., Bojarczyk B., Jorgensen F. A. E., Niedziołka D., Pacześniak A., Potorski R., Wincławska M., Włodkowska-Bagan A., Jeran A., Mol A., Solsbery A., Dąbrowska I., Głodkowski M., Kopcewicz G., Olszanecka N., Piechowiak-Lamparska J.

The Copernicus Journal of Political Studies

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2013

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issue 2 (5)

PL

The purpose of the article is to address an existing challenge of conducting the research on political elites in modern societies, particularly in the emerging democracies. In addition to a significant gap between theoretical and empirical data, there is also no common vision of the best approach to the research on political elites, especially in transition countries. Most of all, it is caused by the absence of unified common view on the role and distinct functions of political elites in emerging democracies by the scientific world. Consequently, there is a problem with appropriate estimation and conducting analyses of elites’ actions, their weight, and strategy in decision making process towards or backwards to establishing democratic institutions and implication of democratic values. Thus, the article is to describe and analyse main divergence of views on the role, scope and dimension of research of political elites, provided by different theories, namely Marxist one, the classic political elites’ theory and the theory of democratic elitism in accordance with the challenges and requirements of the realities of the current political process.Full text: http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/czasopismo/589/?idno=14760

5

Corruption between public and private moralities: The Albanian case in a comparative perspective

75%

Prato G.

Human Affairs

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2013

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vol. 23

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issue 2

196-211

EN

This essay draws on comparative ethnographic material from Albania and Italy. It addresses different forms of corruption, arguing that in order to understand the way in which phenomena such as corruption occur and are experienced in any given society, we should contextualize them in the historical and cultural traditions of that specific society. In doing so, however, we should be alert in avoiding falling into the trap of either moral relativism or cultural determinism. The essay suggests that an anthropological analysis of corruption should distinguish between legal rules and social norms. In particular, the empirical study of such norms helps to understand the meanings-both individual and inter-subjective-that actors give to the social and political situation in which they operate.

6

Public Administration Education in a Legalistic Setting: New Tendencies in Hungarian Public Administration and Training

75%

Gellén M.

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

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2013

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vol. 6

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issue 2

53-67

EN

Th e article examines the recent developments in public service training in Hungary and draws conclusions for the future. Hungary is considered to be part of the legalistic culture of European PA; therefore we analyze the connection between the legalistic approach as a cultural environment of PA practice and PA education as an influential factor of changing this environment. Th e empirical part of the research contains three elements: analysis of the professional training of civil service, the content of PA university training and the composition of professions within the central civil service. Th e empirical findings on these three dimensions are analyzed in light of recent structural changes of PA university education and professional training. Under a Government Decree issued in 2012, the National University of Public Services was appointed by the Government to be in charge of PA education and training. Th e university itself was recently created by the merger of law enforcement, military and civil PA universities (academies). Th is structural change can be characterized by centralization and, to a certain extent, simplification, too. Th e restructuring of PA training is completed by the concept of the Government making the fields of public service permeable, open to each other. Th e university itself is a test field for this concept since police and military students have the opportunity to study civil PA courses. Th e need for this kind of cross-learning is supported by the new phenomenon that defense and policing are gradually becoming more civilian in their character, while traditional training in these fields must undergo serious changes too. Although the article states that the basic framework of public administration education - as a major driver of public administration culture - is still dominantly legalistic, it also introduces the ways in which the new public-administration education system has tried to change the content of its degree programs and how it has attempted to have an impact on the entire public-administrative system to move from procedural orientation to a more solution-oriented mindset.

7

The Colour Revolutions in the Post-Soviet Space: Illusion and Reality of the Post-Soviet Civil Disobedience

71%

Kozłowski K.

Studia z Polityki Publicznej

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2016

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vol. 3

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issue 4(12)

135-151

PL

Wydarzenia polityczne, które miały miejsce pod koniec 2003 roku w Gruzji, na Ukrainie w 2004 roku i w 2005 roku w Kirgistanie są popularnie zwany Rose, Orange i Tulip Revolution lub zbiorowo: kolor rewolucje w przestrzeni poradzieckiej. Na pierwszy rzut oka określenie "rewolucja" może wydawać się odpowiednie. Rewolucje kolorystyczne spowodowały zmianę reżimu we wszystkich trzech stanach. Jednak z perspektywy dziesięcioletniej można zauważyć, że rewolucyjne zmiany w systemach politycznych Gruzji, Ukrainy i Kirgistanu w rzeczywistości nie miały miejsca. Post-rewolucyjny rzeczywistość: wojna rosyjsko-gruzińska i oskarżenia przeciwko rewolucyjnym prezydentem Gruzji Micheilem Saakaszwilim, niesławny zakończenie kariery politycznej rewolucyjnego lider Wiktor Juszczenko tylko czterech lat po pomarańczowej rewolucji i spektakularnego upadku Wiktora Janukowycza reżim, który doprowadził do hybrydycznej wojny z Rosją, lub ciągła niestabilność Kirgistanu po wydarzeniach rewolucyjnych z 2005 r. wymagają jeszcze innego wglądu w to, co wydarzyło się w Tbilisi, Kijowie i Biszkeku. Bez dogłębnej analizy wydarzeń niemożliwe jest zrozumienie podstawowej społecznej i politycznej dynamiki obecnych i przyszłych zmian w Europie Wschodniej, na Kaukazie lub w Azji Środkowej. Ponowna ocena Color Revolutions ma jednak nie tylko historyczne znaczenie. Jest to także uniwersalna lekcja dotycząca najważniejszym wyzwaniem, że wszystkie demokratyczne ruchy społeczne działające w autorytarnych lub post-autorytarnych członkowskie muszą stawić czoła: jak zarządzać dużą skalę protesty obywatelskie nieposłuszeństwo o zawiedzionego społeczeństwa, podczas gdy rządy rządzące nie przestrzegają zasady demokratyczne i społeczność międzynarodowa nie rozumieją w pełni znaczenia zachodzących zmian.

EN

The political events that took place at the end of 2003 in Georgia, in 2004 in Ukraine and in 2005 in Kyrgyzstan are popularly called the Rose, Orange and Tulip Revolution or collectively: the Colour Revolutions in the post-Soviet space. At first glance the term "revolution" may seem appropriate. The Colour Revolutions have resulted in the regime change in all the three states. However, from a decade-long perspective one may notice that the revolutionary changes in the political systems of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan did not actually take place. The post-revolutionary reality: the Russian-Georgian war and criminal charges against the revolutionary Georgian President Micheil Saakashvili, the infamous ending to the political career of the revolutionary leader Victor Yushchenko just four year after the Orange Revolution and the spectacular collapse of the Victor Yanukovych regime, which led to a hybrid warfare with Russia, or Kyrgyzstan's permanent political instability following the revolutionary events of 2005 require yet another insight into what has happened in Tbilisi, Kiev, and Bishkek. Without an in-depth analysis of the events, it is impossible to understand the fundamental social and political dynamics of the ongoing and future changes in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus or Central Asia. The re-evaluation of the Colour Revolutions is not only of historical importance, though. It is also a universal lesson concerning the most important challenge that all the democratic social movements active in the authoritarian or post-authoritarian states have to face: how to manage large-scale civil disobedience protests of a disappointed society while the ruling governments do not follow democratic rules and the international community does not fully comprehend the significance of the ongoing changes.

8

Hungarian Stories of the Regime Change: Voices and Perspectives

71%

Balázs I. J.

Porównania

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2020

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vol. 27

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issue 2

127-139

PL

Narracje o zmianie ustroju w literaturze węgierskiej zyskały nowy charakter około 2010 r., po dwóch dziesięcioleciach postkomunizmu. Artykuł analizuje strategie narracyjne powieści przedstawiających ten temat, pokazując ich tendencję do przyjmowania mikrohistorycznego punktu widzenia. Omówione zostały również powieści napisane przez autorów wywodzących się z mniejszości etnicznych, takich jak Ádám Bodor, Andrea Tompa, Sándor Zsigmond Papp, Zsolt Láng, którzy w swojej prozie opisują dramatyczną zmianę ustroju, jaka miała miejsce w Rumunii w 1989 r.

EN

Regime change narratives in Hungarian literature gained a new type of consistency around 2010, after two decades of postcommunism. The article analyses narrative strategies of novels written about the regime change, showing their tendency towards a microhistorical approach. The discussed novels include works by such minority authors as Ádám Bodor, Andrea Tompa, Sándor Zsigmond Papp, Zsolt Láng, who represent in their novels the dramatic regime change that took place in Romania in 1989.

Refine search results

Regime change and the future of popular sovereignty

THE FORMS OF ORGANIZED CRIME AFTER THE CHANGE OF REGIME IN HUNGARY

From Overdecentralization to Overcentralization ? Hungarian Experience in Handling the Crisis at the Local Level

The Research on Political Elites: Steady vs. Modern Theories

Corruption between public and private moralities: The Albanian case in a comparative perspective

Public Administration Education in a Legalistic Setting: New Tendencies in Hungarian Public Administration and Training

The Colour Revolutions in the Post-Soviet Space: Illusion and Reality of the Post-Soviet Civil Disobedience

Hungarian Stories of the Regime Change: Voices and Perspectives