In the 1980s, economic deterioration pushed Yugoslavs to despair and, under the pressure of Serbias ambitious political establishment, the country broke up along ethnic fault lines. This volume, now ...in its fourth expanded edition, tells the story of socialist Yugoslavia troubles and the challenges facing its successor states from May 1980 to July 2001.
The transformation process in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) after 1989 is often clothed in terms of historical and geographical categories, either as a 'return of history' or as a 'return to ...Europe', or both. Either way, the radical right in CEE claims a prominent place in this politics of return. Studies of the radical right echo the more general concern, in analyses of the region, with historical analogies and the role of legacies. Sometimes parallels are discovered between the post-1989 radical right and interwar fascism. They imply a 'Weimarization' of the transformation countries and the return of the pre-socialist, ultranationalist, or even fascist pastthe 'return of history'. Another interpretation argues that since some CEE party systems increasingly resemble their West European counterparts, so does the radical right, at least where it is electorally successful - the 'return to Europe'. A third line of thought states that the radical right in the region is a phenomenon sui generis, inherently shaped by the historical forces of state socialism and the transformation process. As a result, and in contrast to Western Europe, it is ideologically more extreme and anti-democratic while organizationally more a movement than a party phenomenon. This book provides insight into the role of historical forces in the shaping and performance of the current radical right in CEE. It conceptualizes 'legacies' both as a contextual factor, i.e. as part of structural and cultural opportunities for new movements and parties in the region, and as textual factors, i.e. as part of the ideological baggage of the past which is revivedand reinterpretedby the radical right. An introductory essay by Michael Minkenberg puts the topic and the concept of legacies into a larger research perspective. Articles by Lenka Bustikova and Herbert Kitschelt as well as John
Ishiyama employ the role of legacies as context, whereas the contributions by Timm Beichelt, Sarah de Lange and Simona Guerra as well as James Frusetta and Anca Glont treat legacies as text.
Between 1936 and 1941, the Croatian Peasant Party, headed by Vladko Macek, operated two militias the Hrvatska seljacka zatita (HSZ) or Croatian Peasant Defense in the villages and the Hrvatska ...gradanska zastita (HGZ) or Croatian Civil Defense in the urban centers. Even though it is well known that these units played an important role in stopping police violence against the Croatian peasantry, there has been precious little attention paid to them up to now. An examination of the activity of the HSZ in particular can throw light not only on Maceks complicated relations with the Yugoslav government, but also on his relations with Pavelic and the fascist Ustaa movement as well as on the nature of the interwar Kingdom. In a word, the mere fact that Macek saw the need to create a peasant self-defense force speaks volumes about the lawlessness prevailing in that country at the time.
Albania — Then and Now Ramet, Sabrina P.
European History Quarterly,
01/2009, Letnik:
39, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Book Review
Recenzirano
Ramet reviews A Six Month Kingdom: Albania 1914 by Duncan Heaton-Armstrong; Albania and King Zog: Independence, Republic and Monarchy 1908-1939 by Owen Pearson; King Zog of Albania: Europe's Self ...Made Muslim Monarch by Jason Tomes; and Albania Today: A Portrait of Post-Communist Turbulence by Clarissa De Waal.
