Syllabus
(The first part of the course in the fall semester.) 1)Political systems of Central and Eastern European Countries before 1918 2)Political systems of Central Europe 1918-1939 (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland) 3)Political systems of the Baltic States 1918-1939 4)Political systems of the Balkans 1918-1939 (Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania) 5)Political system of the Soviet Union before the WW2 6)Political systems of Central and Eastern European Countries during the WW2 7)The Sovietization of Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1948 8)Political systems of Central Europe 1948-1989 (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland) 9)Political systems of the Balkans 1948-1989 (Albania, Bulgaria, Romania) 10)Political system of Yugoslavia 11)Political system of the Soviet Union 12)The nature of East European communist non-democratic political systems (totalitarianism vs. authoritarianism)
Annotation
This course is an introduction to the modern politics and government of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century and present. We will examine some few periods: 1918-1939 (between World War I and World War II), 1939-1945 (the World War II), 1944-1948 (sovietization), 1948-1989 (communist era).
All these periods will be studied by comparative approach. Beside the description of the most important historical and contemporary political events we focus on application of some basic theories of political science to Central and East European political practice, or more precisely analyse them by means of these theories.
We will target the few main questions, for example: transition to democracy, consolidation of democracy, type of political system (democratic or non-democratic, what kind of democracy and non-democracy /authoritarian or totalitarian/), type of political regime (parliamentary, presidential, semi-presidential), constitutions and state systems (establishment), parties and party systems, elections and electoral systems, etc.