Original scientific paper

DILEMMAS OF DEMOCRATIC STATE-BUILDING IN SLOVAKIA

Jonathan Stein ; Institute for East West Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Mitchell Orenstein ; Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, USA

Abstract

Slovakian political development following the collapse of communism is analysed in the text. The instigator of the democratic change in Slovakia was the organization “Public against violence” /VPN/ (the equivalent to the Czech “Citizens' Forum”), in which Vladimir Mečiar came to prominence very early on. Following his clash with the leadership of VPN in spring of 1991, he emerged as a charismatic political leader. Relying on his populist party called “Movement for Democratic Slovakia” /HZDS/, Mečiar in 1992 won the Slovakian parliamentary elections and became Prime Minister. HZDS' radicalization of the nationalist discourse and its striving for a total institutional transformation of Czechoslovakian federation led to the so called “velvet divorce” and Slovakian independence early in 1993. Mečiar and HZDS briefly lost power in 1994 due to the party rift, but made a triumphant comeback after the elections in autumn of the same year. The authors' thesis is that this is responsible for the fact that in Slovakia national populism and client-patrimonial type of government have prevailed over democratic constitutionalism. The authors claim that the causes for such a development can be found in the social repercussions of the forced postwar industrialization and in the powerful tradition of cultural and political nationalism.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

105920

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/105920

Publication date:

18.6.1996.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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