European discourses on rights: The quest for statehood in Europe - the case of Slovakia

Abstract

Political developments in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 have changed the map of the world and re-drawn the post Second World War political landscape. These changes have produced a further political and theoretical consequence: they have challenged our complacency about the rational conduct of human agents. Particularly worrisome was the eruption of nationalistic, tribal passions in the Balkans, the collapse of states and emerging claims to statehood by many new national groups. A vast amount of literature has been written to address these issues. In this book, rather than adopting a certain angle from an existing theoretical position. I will review some of the literature dealing with those political developments, using it as the specific background against which I write. The main contribution this book makes is to reassess the current debate by attempting a different broadly based yet coherent approach. The method employed is a combination of historical and critical analysis, paying attention to the discursive constructions of the state. I will trace the theoretical genealogy of such central concepts as reason, individual, natural and historical rights, and nation. The underlying question throughout is how the political is constructed, In the second part of the book. I will pay special attention to Slovak and Czech texts relevant to the quest for statehood