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This book considers the state of Czech democracy, following the
rise of authoritarian regimes in Poland and Hungary and the ascent
of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babis to the office of prime
minister of the Czech Republic, leading to concerns about conflict
of interest. The authors argue that civic values, such as
tolerance, respect for the equality of people, and readiness to
play by the rules of the political game, are key factors in
determining whether the Czech Republic will maintain its democracy
in the coming years. The book employs a broad perspective, bringing
together insights from political science, sociology, cultural
studies, and other disciplines to analyse changes in the democracy
of the Czech Republic since 1989, taking into consideration various
dimensions of civic values, including politics, gender inequality,
film, and the media.
The collapse of the communist monopoly across Central and
Southeastern Europe in 1989/1990 initiated a process of rapid
political, economic, and cultural change. While Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, and Serbia went on to suffer three and a half years of
war, all the states of the region have confronted challenges as
they dismantled communist institutions and drafted new laws, in
some cases ignoring their own laws. Indeed, in certain countries,
local politicians have done their best to corrupt the media and the
economy, with recent years seeing some states move in an illiberal
direction. Throughout the region, however, there has been a strong
interest in enjoying the benefits of membership of the European
Union and NATO. In this updated second edition, regional
specialists comprehensively analyze the post-communist trajectories
of the states of Central and Southeastern Europe, encompassing
democratization, privatization, corruption, and war. It will appeal
to students and scholars, whether they have a specific interest in
the region, or are studying European politics more generally.
For some legal philosophers, if a law is procedurally correct,
enacted in ways constitutionally recognised and agreed upon, then
the content is of no significance. It is a "good" law, no matter
what it does or justifies. The question of one's consent or
opposition to any particular law is extraneous to the legality and
is regarded merely as a political matter. The assumption is that a
certain procedure and logic in law creation has taken place, and
the law can be altered by a change in political leaders in a
subsequent political election. However, this view and assumption
obscure an uncomfortable fact. Some laws can be "bad" or "immoral."
Critical legal theory suggests that there are often two (or more)
sets of laws, and it makes no difference if Lady Justice is
blindfolded or not. Laws change in the process of history, in part,
because societal norms change. As common understandings of morality
evolve, law adapts itself to the new moral environment. Norms can
change slowly or rapidly, even within a lifetime. This book
examines both social and legal norms and theories of how they are
both created. Christine M. Hassenstab investigates how laws on
sterilization, birth control and abortion were created, by focusing
on the act of legislation; how the law was driven by scientific and
social norms during the first and closing decades of the 20th
century in the USA (especially in the state of Indiana) and Norway.
The primary focus of Body Law and the Body of Law is the sociology
of law and how and why the law changes. The author develops the
notion "body law" for reproductive policies and uses sociological
theories to untie the various strands of social history and legal
history and looks at two cases of legislation. The book is divided
in to two main sections. The first examines eugenic laws in the USA
state of Indiana and Norway during the first decades of 20th
century. The second part is about the birth control and abortion
debate in both countries throughout the late 1960s and 1970s.
Christine M. Hassenstab is a lawyer and sociologist. She served as
a criminal defense attorney for 15 years (1987-2001) in Seattle,
Washington. Currently, she is an adviser in the EU Grants Office at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim,
Norway.
Second edition enlarged. Dictators pets are too often ignored but
no longer They re all here in this hilarious collection of madcap
ditties: Lenin s cat, Hitler s dog, Qaddafi s sweet-scented camel,
Caligula s horse, Mao s cockroach (he banned real pets), Stalin s
spider, and many more. The volume also includes philosophers songs
and a Holy Roman opera, Turmoil in Brindisi about a long-forgotten
ecumenical council called by Pope Sixtus the Sixth, an equally
forgotten pope. Written over a period of 35 years, these jottings
are also a record of a lifetime of laughter. Sabrina Ramet's
collection of ditties is sidesplittingly hilarious What a great
idea to deal with the defining concept or characteristics of
world's dictators and their pets and philosophers in poems in a
humorous way What is even more important, Ramet with her poems
touches us on a deeper level as human beings with universal human
traits. -Lea Plut-Pregelj, University of Maryland. This is a unique
publication. Professor Sabrina Ramet has shown how humour can (and
should) be used to unmask and demystify dictators and
dictatorships. Funny and serious at the same time, these ditties
include many authentic touches, such as the reference to
self-criticism in the ditty about Ceausescu. The philosophers'
songs are also great fun, combining witty summaries of some of
their major ideas with wild humour. - Knut Erik Solem, Norwegian
University of Science & Technology.
Most of the action taking place in this story occurred in the
mid-1980s, when the threat of industrial pollution was already well
known. The narrator was perhaps one of the first to realize that
industrial pollution was interconnected with a vast international
conspiracy of brain surgeons. He found evidence of this conspiracy
not only in the proliferation of brain surgery clinics and in their
activities, but in coded messages embedded in bus schedules, in
syringe marks on fruit, even in television commercials. Although he
played only a minor role in the struggle against the brain
surgeons, he felt it was his duty as a living being to record these
strange events exactly as they occurred, so that the truth could be
known. "Hilariously zany, brisk, and suspenseful, and so strange in
an otherworldly sense that you cannot stop turning the pages - I
kept muttering "what the. " to myself - Cafe Bombshell is a
Montypythonesque rendition of the incredible adventures of two
stuffed rabbits and their wards. Reading the novel was a lot of
fun, and it lifted my spirits in some unexpected ways. This is a
genuinely unique piece of writing." - Gordana P. Crnkovic,
University of Washington "Ramet's first novel takes us on a
surrealistic rollercoaster ride blending in psychedelic adaptations
of events from the author's life into a hilarious, wacky adventure
that takes the reader from one side of the Pacific to the other and
back, with a short jaunt into outer space, culminating in a
world-saving song-and-dance-routine climax in Las Vegas, in which
two stuffed eco-terrorist rabbits and an assortment of robotized
weasels play the decisive role. Filled with a menagerie of
unforgettable animal characters and told through the eyes of an
apparently paranoid character worried about brain surgery, this
story also incorporates a serious critique of environmental
destruction, as well as swipes at corporations and their aggressive
marketing campaigns." - Vjeran Pavlakovic, NCEEER Research Scholar
in Zagreb.
Building democracy in societies that have known only authoritarian
rule for half a century is complicated. Taking the post-Yugoslav
region as its case study, this volume shows how success with
democratisation depends on various factors, including establishing
the rule of law, the consolidation of free media, and society's
acceptance of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. Surveying
the seven successor states, the authors argue that Slovenia is in a
class by itself as the most successful, with Croatia and Serbia not
far behind. The other states - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia,
Montenegro, and Kosovo - are all struggling with problems of
corruption, poverty, and unemployment. The authors treat the issue
of values as a policy problem in its own right, debating the extent
to which values have been transformed by changes in education and
the media, how churches and women's organisations have entered into
the policy debate, and whether governments have embraced a
programme designed to effect changes in values.
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