Religion in Eastern Europe After the Fall of Communism: From Euphoria to Anxiety

In the decades prior to the implosion of the communist system, change could be discerned here and there in Eastern Europe. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the most pertinent developments that spurred the transition from communism to post-communism, employing some fairly broad brushstrokes to make my case

Post-communism and the abandonment of mixed-member electoral systems

Many countries adopted mixed-member (MM) electoral systems in the 1990s, but several switched to list proportional representation (PR) recently. Most switchers are post-communist countries that used the semi-proportional mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) system, often associated with dominant parties. List PR was adopted under competitive conditions in some cases (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Ukraine), while in places where authoritarian control remains (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan), list PR appears to be used as a means of reducing competition and undermining multiparty democracy

Gender issues and inequality in higher education outcomes under post-communism

The paper intends to increase the information and knowledge on graduates’ labour market entry and early career under post-communism. The specific purpose of the analysis is to examine gender differences with respect to two particular research questions: the length of time graduates need to enter the labour force and find a first job; the odds for becoming unemployed during the first five years spent in labour force. Data from the recent HEGESCO project (www.hegesco.org) are employed in the paper. The data collection has occurred in 2008 / 2009 and refers to those diploma holders who completed their studies five years earlier in 2002 / 2003. The project involved five nations: Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The present study deals with three former communist countries: Hungary (N=1533), Poland (N=1200) and Slovenia (N=2923). The paper provides background information on these three countries in terms of their institutional features related to the school system and the labour market. Both descriptive (bivariate) and causal (multivariate) techniques are applied in the study. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis is used to examine gender differences in labour market entry in the three countries. For investigating the determinants of possible unemployment experience (did it occur or not), the logistic regression method is applied. In addition to gender variation, data offer a large variety of predictors and control variables informing about various characteristics of the study program (field of study, BA/MA, full-time / part-time, first degree gained) as well as about the respondent’s involvement during studies (voluntary / student organization activity, internship, work experience). It is also possible to control for social origin (parental education). Results reveal that gender difference for the length of time to find a first job is significantly present only in Slovenia. For unemployment, at observed level women are definitely disadvantaged and experienced unemployment in all three countries more frequently as compared to men. On the ground of the multivariate analysis, however, the female disadvantage to have a significantly bigger chance to become unemployed in comparison to males turns out to be present only in Poland. As taking into account the large variation in the compositional effects, the paper elaborates on how these features bring advantages or disadvantages for males and females to avoid unemployment. On this ground it is impossible to conclude about a better or worse situation regarding the rank order of the three countries.

Postkomunizmo transformacija: tarp liberalaus pliuralizmo ir demokratinės bendruomenės

The main task of this article is to analyze complex relations between post-communism and democracy. More specifically, it aims to understand the interaction of two different forms of society: holistic and plu­ralistic. The article argues that post-communism is the hybrid condition that includes the alter ego of com­munism, liberalism and postmodernism. The reflection of triple relations is necessary for the autonomy of post-communism. The relationship between post-communism and communism is analyzed as the problem of post-totalitarianism, between post-communism and liberalism as the problem of democratic liberaliza­tion, and between post-communism and postmodernism as the problem of pluralisation of pluralism.Santrauka. Šio straipsnio tikslas – atskleisti ir išnagrinėti problemines sąveikas tarp postkomunizmo ir demokratijos; reflektuoti vidines politiškumo formos perskyras, kurios formuojasi komunizmo ir libera­lizmo idėjų ir skirtingų visuomenės formų, holistinės ir pliuralistinės, susidūrimo momentu. Teigiama, kad postkomunizmo politiškumo forma yra mišri, apimanti tris – komunizmo, liberalizmo ir postmoderniz­mo – alter ego. Kiek postkomunizmo transformacijos fenomenas yra autonomiškas, t.y. siekia apibrėžti savo ribas ir neištirpti kitame, tiek reflektuoja santykius a) komunizmo, b) liberalizmo ir c) postmodernizmo atžvilgiais. Pirmasis santykis nagrinėtinas kaip posttotalitarizmo, antrasis – kaip demokratijos liberali­zavimo, trečiasis – kaip pliuralumo pliuralizacijos problema. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: postkomunizmas, liberalus pliuralizmas, demokratinis pliuralizmas, diferen­cinė politiškumo prigimtis. Key words: post-communism, liberal pluralism, democratic pluralism, differential nature of the po­litical. ABSTRACT THE TRANSFORMATION OF POST-COMMUNISM: BETWEEN LIBERAL PLURALISM AND DEMOCRACTIC COMMUNITY The main task of this article is to analyze complex relations between post-communism and democracy. More specifically, it aims to understand the interaction of two different forms of society: holistic and plu­ralistic. The article argues that post-communism is the hybrid condition that includes the alter ego of com­munism, liberalism and postmodernism. The reflection of triple relations is necessary for the autonomy of post-communism. The relationship between post-communism and communism is analyzed as the problem of post-totalitarianism, between post-communism and liberalism as the problem of democratic liberaliza­tion, and between post-communism and postmodernism as the problem of pluralisation of pluralism

The Puzzling Underuse of Arbitration in Post-Communism: A Law and Economics Analysis

The paper attempts to explain the failure of postcommunist traders exemplified by Balkan traders to make use of arbitration courts by means of the rational choice of forum approach offered by the law and economics movement. Conjectures about traders? behaviour derived by combining this approach with the constraints set by institutional features of Balkan countries, in particular Bulgaria and Croatia, are confronted with experience. As it turns out the successes yielded by the rational choice of forum approach are very limited. This may be a dissapointment to its most fervent advocates, but is nevertheless useful, because it suggests a more flexible approach. -- In dem Aufsatz wird der Versuch unternommen, die geringe Neigung der Kaufleute der postkommunistischen Länder, ihre Streitigkeiten durch Schiedsgerichte entscheiden zu lassen, mit Hilfe eines theoretischen Instrumentariums zu erklären, das der ökonomischen Analyse des Rechts entstammt. Diese hat sich mit der Frage befasst, unter welchen Umständen Konfliktparteien ein bestimmtes Forum für die Konfliktaustragung gegenüber anderen vorziehen. Die Anwendung dieser Ansätze auf die institutionellen Gegebenheiten bestimmter Balkanländer, insbesondere Bulgarien und Kroatien, führt zu Hypothesen, die einer empirischen Überprüfung zugänglich sind, dabei aber nicht sonderlich gut abschneiden. Dieses Ergebnis legt eine Erweiterung des Forschungsansatzes nahe.Schiedsspruch,Verfahrensdauer,Parteilichkeit,Berufungsverfahren,Rechtsfortbildung,arbitration awards,court congestion,favoritism,appeals process,lawmaking

The New Grand Bourgeoisie under Post-Communism: Central Europe, Russia and China Compared

In the former socialist redistributive economies, the transition to market economy and the conversion to private ownership followed different trajectories. The paper offers an overview on how a new class of grand bourgeoisie was formed in three differentpost-socialism, transitional economies, wealth, privatization, bourgeoisie

“Word Made Flesh”: Czech Women’s Writing From Communism to Post-Communism

This article explores the changes in Czech women’s fiction from communism to post- communism, focusing in particular on Czech women writers’ relationship to literary discourse and feminism. It contends that women writers’ rapport to ideological discourse and literary production under communism is a determining factor in women’s relationship to both writing and feminism. It examines this literary legacy in terms of post-communism, surveying the differences between a totalitarian socialist regime and that of a materialist, capitalist economy, as exemplified in Czech women’s literature. The article offers a survey the major post-communist women writers, including Hodrová, Boučková, Kriseová, as well as delving into a comparative close-reading analysis of two representatives of both communist and post-communist women’s writing: Eva Kantůrková’s Přítelkyně z domu smutku (Companions Of The Bleak House) and Iva Pekarková’s Kulatý svet (The World is Round). Both these texts offer a challenging vision of “women’s community” for today’s global order

POSTKOMUNIZMAS KAIP IDEOLOGINĖ KONSTRUKCIJA

The main task of this article is the conceptualization of post-communism. The article seeks to challenge the persistence tendency to describe post-communism only as a political and geographical phenomenon. Post-communism is shown to be a complex process that fits uneasily into pre-given categories. Ideology as a complex of theories, convictions, beliefs, argumentative procedures is one of the most important dimen­sions of post-communism. This article insists on the importance of ideology without falling into the traps of either determinism or historicism.The article challenges the dominant universal discourse of political liberalism, which sees post-communist change as a one-way process of transition to liberal de­mocracy and free market. This universal politics of post-communism produces new hierarchies and forms of exclusion between ‘postmodern’ West and ‘post-communist’ East. Thus we need to employ the tools of post-colonialism and postmodernism to explore and deconstruct the operation of the concept of post-communism through language, culture and institutions.The article argues that so called neutral ‘post-ideological consensus’ is actually ideological and contradictory. Post-communism is not the objective ‘transitional’ re­ality, rather it is the subjective (mis)perception of ideological representations. The ar­ticle also challenges the myths of ‘the end of ideology’, ‘the end of communism’ and ‘the end of modernity’. Post-communism is not the transitional condition from ideo­logy of communism to ‘post-ideological’ liberal democracy, but rather the complex, ambivalent and long historical norm, or, in other words, specific type of modernity.Straipsnio tikslas – apibrėžti postkomunizmo politinės filosofijos analizės prielaidas naujai artikuliuojant postkomunizmo, ideologijos, postideologijos ir diskurso sampratas. Postkomunizmas yra tęstinė hibridinė būklė, kuri atsiranda sąveikaujant dekolonizacijos, modernizacijos, postmodernizacijos, globalizacijos procesams. Postkomunizmo kaip būklės apibrėžimas reikalauja nagrinėti šį reiškinį kompleksiškai, įtraukiant į analizę prieštaringų ideologinių diskursų reprezentacijas, atsižvelgiant į postkomunizmo demokratijos problemas, atsirandančias posttotalitarizmo laikotarpiu. Straipsnyje, remiantis postideologijos tezės kritika, teigiama, kad santykio tarp postkomunizmo ir ideologinių diskursų bei santykio tarp postkomunizmo ir postkolonializmo problemų artikuliavimas padeda geriau suprasti postkomunizmo fenomeną