Paul Anton de Lagarde (1827-1891) taught at the University of Göttingen from 1869 to 1889, and was a correspondent of Masaryk in the 1880s. Masaryk remained concerned with Lagarde’s teaching, even after his death in 1891, until the end of his own life. Masaryk’s relationship to Lagarde was not only complex, but also highly paradoxical in view of Masaryk’s own reputation for humanitarianism and tolerance, which may explain why scholars have shied away from the topic. Lagarde tended to appeal to radical nationalists in Germany, eventually including Hitler’s National Socialists, by his avid promotion of the German mission of colonization in the East and his sharp critique of Jewish influences in Christianity. The key to understanding Lagarde’s attractiveness for Masaryk is the latter’s search for a religious dimension to round out his own Weltanschauung. Initially, there could be a rapprochement on the grounds of Lagarde’s reduction of Christian religion to an inner ethical voice, which Masaryk felt was compatible (in its absence of dogma or historical narrative) with his own rationalist theism. Ultimately, however, the two thinkers grew out of two contrasting albeit both Central European strands of thought, Lagarde from the idealistic and ontically monistic school, Masaryk from the realistic and ontically pluralistic one. The former trend, known as the German philosophical tradition, had its source in the secularized Lutheran subjectivism, the latter trend, known as the Austrian philosophical tradition, had its source in the Josephist Catholic Enlightenment with its empirical objectivism. In the end the metaphysical divergence made itself felt in the stark contrast between Masaryk’s humanitarian cosmopolitanism and Lagarde’s nationalist xenophobia. This led to Masaryk’s repudiation of Lagarde as a political pace-setter, despite a residual respect for Lagarde as a theologian. The story of their encounter sharply illustrates the difference of the two philosophical traditions in their bearing on the genesis of nationalism in Central Europe.
The process of Europeanization has been traditionally associated with an economic and political transformation, often undermining the value‑based residual effects such as the state’s or group’s acquiescence to take on a European identity. This dual nature of Europeanization is particularly important in the Balkans, where a highly established sense of self is deeply embedded in the fiber of its people. The goal of a unified Europe, and the Balkan ability or even willingness to become “European” is central to this paper’s analytical approach. A key facet of Europeanization is to create, promote and, more importantly, sustain a sense of a pan‑European identity. However, within multi‑ ethnic and conflicting environments the idea of a national identity is often irresolute, as in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. The paper tries to conceptualize the notion of Europeanization from a firmly identity‑based framework, discrediting the essentialist approach to identity formation in favor of a more constructivist model. It argues that the notion of a European identity is in fact a shared social value, rather than a tangible idea easily applicable to every situation, and with the Balkans being a particularly difficult case study. In essence, the underlying question is what does the process of Europeanization really mean and how viable is it in the context of a complex environment such as the Balkans?
The political situation in Catalonia during the last months is changing almost daily. Catalan nationalist movements consistently continue their efforts to create an independent state. As a result, every vote – an unofficial plebiscite, local elections or elections to the Catalan parliament – is treated like a referendum on the matter of independence. The Catalan actions that are ever more faster and further-reaching meet with a growing opposition of the central government, threatening the Catalan authorities with a number of sanctions in case of taking further, concrete steps to break away from Spain. Although, from the outside, the Catalan independence parties seem to be a monolith, the situation on the regional political scene is much more complex. During the past several months, the balance of power of political parties in Catalonia was completely changed. Ruling for almost thirty years, Convergencia i Unió divided and the results of the election of 27 September forced Prime Minister Artur Mas (of the centre-right CiU) and the leaders of the new pro-independence coalition Junts pel Si to seek an ally in the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy. Therefore, this is a time of difficult choices for Catalonia, not only in relation to the issue of independence, but also when it comes to alliances on the national political scene. In this article, I will try to analyze the curent political scene in Catalonia and its impact on the independence aspirations of the Autonomous Community. I will examine the current balance of power of political parties and the changes that have occurred in 2015. I will look at the programmes of the leading – in recent years as well as currently – Catalan political factions in terms of their outlook on the issue of independence. Finally, I will consider in what way the complex situation on the Catalan political scene may become a determinant of the effectiveness of the demands for independence made by the authorities of Catalonia.
In the presented article the author is studying arguments occurring between the nationalism in its radical version and with poetry engendered in the environment of Polish national radicals in the 30. of XX century. These groups have often appealed to the Polish literary tradition, mainly of Romanticism and included in it (then taken over and reinterpretated by Polish nationalists) topoi (topoi of flight, youth, idealism).
The liberalization and democratization of society as well as of the Constitution and relevant legislation including electoral laws for Reichsrat, Bohemian Diet and local self-governments between 1848 and World War I, considerably contributed to the development of the Czech women’s movement. The study attempts to explore the context of relationships between political liberalization and democratization and the public activities of women’s associations. The focus is on gradual changes in women’s attitudes toward the work for the society. The initial non-political activities oriented on the social sphere and education of girls began to expand into politics since early 1890’s, due to better education of women and significant approval of some politicians. To be able to participate in this political sphere, women had to acquire the suffrage similar to men. Gradual broadening of electoral law contributed to further emancipation of women as well as the Czech society.
Die Studie beschäftigt sich mit der Problematik der Betrachtung von Ľudovít Štúr im Rahmen der ungarischen (d. h. magyarischen) Geschichtsschreibung in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Über drei wesentliche historische Werke vom Historiker und Publizist Lajos Steier, in denen sich er der Geschichte der slowakischen Frage mit Bezug auf die Revolutionsjahre 1848/49 widmete, beobachtet und erfasst man die Stabilität oder vice versa Variabilität Štúr´s Repräsentationen – eines wichtigen Ideologen der slowakischen nationalen Identität. Durch Analyse seiner Publikationen – Slowakische Frage (1912), Tschechen und Slowaken (1919), Slowakische ethnische Frage in 1848 – 1849 (1937) – achtet man nicht nur auf die Interpretation von Ľ. Štúr, seiner Person, Charaktereigenschaften oder Politik, sondern auch auf den zeitgemäßen Kontext (politischen, geopolitischen, ideologischen), der die Steier´s Auslegung der slowakischen nationalen Emanzipationsbewegung und ihrer Führer aus den 30er und 40er Jahren des 19. Jahrhunderts beeinflusste.
Views of the National Party (1928-1939) merit special attention, given both the Party’s prominent role in the political life of interwar Poland and the interesting combination of various elements derived from diverse ideological trends within the Party’s programme. The ideological legacy of the National Party reflected, to a large extent, the key constituents of the National Democracy’s political thought, such as nationalism, representation of all social classes, national integrity and the concept of the nation-state. The National Party underwent major evolution and was subject to internal divisions which makes the image of its political thought much more complex. Based on an analysis of the National Party’s political thought, several conclusions can be formulated. The National Party developed its own views regarding political systems. These were, to a large extent, determined by their own system of values based on the national idea. The National Party’s political system projections were mainly inspired by (1) the successes of the “new type” states; (2) pressure from totalitarian systems; and (3) the influence of the economic and spiritual crisis. The National Party leaders wanted to make the political system more efficient. Nonetheless, views in favor of directly imitating any foreign political systems could hardly be found in the Party’s political thought. The National Party’s ideologists and journalists invariably stated that there was no pre-defined political system, but its form had to be adjusted to the specificity and unique character of a given national body. Although inspiration was drawn from external political systems, the Party’s political thought did not lose its independence.
The European concept of nationalism became a useful instrument in creating new identities of peoples of South Asia. In Bengal, traditional identities were given political dimensions, and a number of emotion building symbols, narrations, invented traditions and characteristics of the land, were employed to attract the people to the idea of a particular nationalism. The role of cities in creating the nationalisms of Bengal is discussed in the present paper. The examples of Dhaka, Kolkata and Murshidabad are considered on the one hand, whereas on the other there is an attempt of a comparison between the role of these three cities and the influence of the countryside and the rural landscape of Bengal in appealing to the sentiments of Bengalis in their nationalistic discourse. Conclusions are submitted for further considerations.
This paper deals with the representation of national and ethnic identity categories in media texts during the Population and Housing Census 2011. Census is understood here as means of constructing collective identities not as clearly pre-defined categories but as socially and media shaped parts of an individual identity. The aim of this study is thus to analyze media representations of Population and Housing Census 2011 as an event that highlights the negotiation of collective identities and the processes of the so called “identitary mobilization”. Quantitative analysis of selected articles from national newspapers enriched by findings of qualitative analysis of comments and videos from the new media shows, among others, that the Census is often represented through a kind of media discourse called national in this paper and that the processes of identitary mobilization acquire specific forms during the Census, although probably not limited to its actual period.
This article is devoted to the analysis of the ideas of Giovanni Preziosi (1881‑1945), an Italian journalist and director of the main anti‑Semitic journal in Italy, “La Vita Italiana”, in circulation from 1921 to 1945. He also served as Minister of State from 1942‑1943, as well as the head of the General Inspectorate of Race in the period of the Italian Social Republic. He is regarded as one of the foremost theorists of Italian anti‑Semitism in the XX century, as well as one of the main representatives of Fascism in the period preceding the March on Rome. Preziosi also played a leading role in the implementation of racist policies in Italy in the years 1938‑1945. In his famous Memoriale, which he developed in January 1944 and then sent to Mussolini and Hitler, he blames Jews and Masons for the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943 and proclaims the “final resolution of the Jewish problem” in Italy. As the head of the General Inspectorate of Race in the years 1944‑1945, he attempted to adopt the German model in Italy, particularly in the project of bills he wrote in May 1944, which were based on the Nuremburg Laws from 1935 and which were to be a revision of the decrees from 1938‑1939.
This article aims to sketch out the current situation of indigenous peoples in Paraguay, both from a legal standpoint in terms of rights, that they supposedly enjoy and from the socioeconomic standpoint, which often reveals a huge contrast between reality and law. To this end, the author will briefly review the history of relations between national Paraguayan society and indigenous peoples, the legislative and ideological changes that have shaped this relationship, and the subjective perception that the majority of society has of native peoples.
The article describes the alliances between nationalist organisations and local branches ofthe Solidarity trade union in recent years. I frame this discussion by using the historicalpoliticalperspective of David Ost’s “Defeat of Solidarity” and George’s Sorel philosophicalconcept of revolutionary syndicalism.
The configuration of the modern public school system started after the Austro‐Hungarian Compromise in 1867. Most of the elementary schools in Upper Hungary belonged to the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches at that time. The church elementary schools could be characterized by two things. On the one hand they didn’t do for the demands of the modern age, but on the other hand they provided mother‐tongue teaching for the Slovak population of the area, who were in the majority in Upper Hungary. This duality became the reason of permanent attack on church elementary schools and there were some attempts to revise the 1868 Nationality and Elementary Education Acts since the 1870‐s. This process had many stages, but it didn’t managed to reach a breakthrough till 1907. The Apponyi school laws in 1907 reached serious results in the field of the modernization of the elementary school system, but most of the church schools were nationalized. At the end of the Dualism only the 10 percents of the Slovak population of Upper Hungary could speak Hungarian, while only the 30‐40 percents of them were illiterate. These data can prove the results of the modernization and the failure of the Magyarization in the area of the public school system.
The Býčí Skála Cave is situated in the central part of the Moravian Karst. The area was researched on a long-term basis by Moravian archaeologist, doctor and speleologist Heinrich Wankel; in 1872 he made an extraordinary discovery there. In the so-called Hallway he uncovered a settlement from the Hallstatt culture era containing valuable artifacts, sacrificed human and animal bodies and also a blacksmith’s workshop. The site soon became the subject matter of romantic and nationalistic interpretations both by Czech (Moravian) patriots supporting H. Wankel and also by German patriots organized under the institute of the German House in Brno.
The article summarizes discussions and ideas of the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century expressed by the Czech society and its political leaders on introduction of the universal suffrage and on the appropriate level of its equality. While putting opinions oscillating between conservatives, socialists, liberals and liberal democrats into the context of similar all-European debates, the article deals with arguments of various political and Word view-related groupings and summarizes causes and results of individual attitudes toward solving this crucial issue of the modern European society. On top of the political and social impact of the universal suffrage introduction it also takes into consideration the gender problem, i.e. the admissibility of the women’s suffrage.
The article addresses the issue of ideological exploitation of the landscape, of mak-ing into an ethno-landscape, which is an important element of the nationalist thought. The authoress analyses the question on the example of the Basque culture, discussing the meaning or the territory and home in the Basque worldview, the most important elements of the Basque national landscape and the way in which they are created and preserved (art, literature).
The specific patterns of masculinity and femininity seem to play a major role in sustaining “imagined community” – the nation. At the same time, the perception of the nation determines gender roles of men and women. Their stability and invariability are to ensure the nation’s survival – both symbolic and physical. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the pattern of masculinity present in nationalistic groups. Its foundation relies on few elements: eagerness to protect the country and women, the control of female sexuality and homophobia.
The study focuses on the large changes in the attitudes of the leading Slovenian politicians in 1986–1988 in the context of discussions at the Presidium of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY). In that period, Slovenian communists moved closer to the ideas of the opposition in their republic and further from the opinions of the other Yugoslav leaders regarding the organisation of the federation. The process is illustrated by three topics, intensely debated in the federal party centre at the time. The first one is the situation in Kosovo and the efforts of Serbia to acquire more powers in both its autonomous provinces, in which it was to a considerable extent supported by Slovenia at least until the export of mass rallies from Serbia to Montenegro in October 1988. The second issue was the activities of the liberal and nationalist opposition in Slovenia, worrying the members of the LCY Presidium but gradually getting more accepted by the Slovenian communists. Finally, the debates on changes to the Yugoslav constitution are presented, with the Slovenian leaders reversing their initial consent to transfer some powers to the federation after negative reactions from the local public.