Search

Right-wing extremism is a form of political extremism. In recent years, strengthening far-right forces has been an unnoticeable trend and a global problem. The main aim of the study will be to find out whether and to what extent the inclination of the respondents living in the territory of the Prešov and Košice regions is related to the views and attitudes of the extreme right in Slovakia in the context of the above-mentioned socio-political developments related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition to the theoretical definition of the basic terminological background, the paper includes the interpretation of the results of quantitative research aimed at determining the degree of acceptance of right-wing radicalism and extremism and identifying the manifestations of covert and overt support for these phenomena in eastern Slovakia in the context of the war in Ukraine. The article uses analytical and descriptive methods and a representative survey by a questionnaire.

On January 1, 1993, as a result of the breakup of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republics, a new state was created on the political map of Europe: the Slovak Republic. The article deals with the foreign policy determinants of this state at the threshold of its establishment. An analysis is made of those determinants that had a key impact on the shape of foreign policy: the geographical environment, historical factors, the population factor, foreign service and diplomacy, and external conditions. Of greatest importance were historical factors, especially in the context of relations with Hungary, the deficit in foreign service and diplomatic personnel, which was of great significance in the context of creating foreign policy from scratch, and the multinational nature of the country. The article uses a comparative method and factor analysis.

The article analyzes the party-political aspects of populism in the Slovak Republic. The structural distinction between the parties of systemic mainstream and populism has come to the forefront of Slovakia's party-political development. The aim of the article is to highlight the specifics of the phenomenon of populism, its forms and party representatives in Slovakia. Considering the emergence and electoral success of populist parties, there is a need to emphasize the complexity of the phenomenon of populism in the modern Slovak Republic. Populists do not have clear ideological attitudes. they use the maxims of various ideological doctrines, which are based on practical needs. The distinction between systemic and populist parties is becoming more complicated today, as their positions on a number of important political issues have converged recently In the process of post-communist development in the Slovak Republic there was a transition from radical forms of populist politics through nationalism and authoritarianism to more moderate tendencies. Populist parties in the CEE countries, and in particular in the Slovak Republic, are characterized by the following features: opposition of the elite and the people based on moral grounds, desire to act as defenders of the people’s interests; anti-immigration, Eurosceptic, anti-globalization orientation of the messages; low level of institutionalization, etc. The main forms of manifestation of Slovak populism are determined: social, national, charismatic, centrist, far-right populism. The article emphasizes that the key trend is the growth of populism in the election campaigns of Slovak parties and competition on the market of populist slogans. Protest calls, social demagoguery, and national populism are electorally perceptible issues that are being pursued by both the opposition and ruling political force. The parliamentary elections of 2020, which can be characterized as «triumph of populism», were an important stage for the development of the party system in Slovakia. The success of the populists and the defeat of the liberal parties in the 2020 elections testify to the crisis of systemic politics and democratic institutions in general, which poses risks to the stable development of Slovakia.

In the Slovak Republic (SR), after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in Czechoslovakia and the collapse of ČSFR in 1993, the problem of creating a national narrative of historical memory, in particular about the Second World War, as one of the important elements of the transformation of Slovak society and systemic post-communist transformations in the young state, became more urgent. The article deals with the official version of preserving and popularizing the historical memory of the Second World War in the Slovak Republic, the main state institution for the implementation of which is the Institute of National Remembrance established in 2002, as well as various interpretations by Slovak historians and politicians of such key events of the Second World War as the history of the Slovak state in 1939-1944, the Hungarian-Slovak "Little War" in March 1939, the participation of Slovak military units in the war on the Eastern Front, the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, the Holocaust. Various sources are used: scientific literature and fiction, cinema and historical journalism, military memoirs and memorials of historical memory, materials of "oral history", etc. The authors emphasize that the bifurcation of Slovak historiography, historical memory and society itself in assessments and interpretations of the events of World War II in national history continues to this day, primarily as a confrontation between official/supranational and national versions of historical memory. The supranational approach, which applies an integral method, synthesizes views, offers multidimensional visions, and evaluates historical facts, phenomena and processes based on the criteria of liberalism and democracy, is preferred at the present stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The paper describes the development of the system of punishment in our territory from the oldest times up to the modern times. It points out the fundamental difference from the current legal situation: while there is currently the most commonly imposed punishment, imprisonment, in the past there was a "diverse range" of punishment, with imprisonment (as we know it today) at the earliest time ever there. Even in later developmental stages, when it already existed, the motivation of its imposition was different from the present and its imposition was still a rare phenomenon. Material and methods historical method, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, description Results In the past, many methods of punishment were used in Slovakia. The method of punishment depended on the crime, as well as on the person of the perpetrator. Conclusions Imprisonment has been used minimally in the past, and has been used as a secondary punishment.

The experience of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic is important for Ukraine. The population of Czechoslovakia rethought the values and realities of the communist regime and embarked decisively on the path to building a democratic state. Similarity in the historical path of the Czech and Ukrainian states is, in our opinion, manifested in two revolutions — the Czech velvet and the Ukrainian orange.The historical experience of the development of the Czech independent state in the conditions of democratic realities of the 1990s is revealed. The main stages of the formation of the new democratic state of the Czech Republic are analysed. The problems and threats that arose in the course of the breakup of Czechoslovakia as a state formation and the construction of two new partner countries in the new European policy of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are revealed.The main stages of the transition of the Czech and Slovak Republics to the development of independent states based on democratic values and the steps of the Czech and Slovak societies to mutual understanding and partnership support in further development are shown.The politics of memory in the Czech and Slovak republics in the post-socialist period show how we can change the path of historical progress and political development; to change the negative experience of totalitarianism in the public consciousness in order to avoid in the future those social phenomena that hinder the development of a free civil society. The Czechs and Slovaks presented to all European peoples the way in which two historically close peoples begin a separate independent statesmanship, “divorcing” in a peaceful manner without any substantial claim to each other. The common past, as it turned out in the case of Czechs and Slovaks, does not necessarily imply interdependence in the political space and in the economic plane. Nowadays democratic environment, it is important to support one another as partners and to foster good neighborly relations. Such experience deserves attention from the Ukrainian authorities because it is of great practical importance — a new model of public memory.

Social justice, as a fundamental value of social policy, is a permanent object of the study of political theory and practice both in the historical and the contemporary context. The presented research paper addresses the content framework of this phenomenon through its specificities in the political-philosophical-axiological plane on the basis of selected economic indicators in terms of their secondary analysis. Its main objective is to identify the axiological understanding of social justice by relevant governmental entities and their coalitions in the Slovak republic and Hungary through valorisation mechanisms of retirement pensions between 2016 and 2019.

The scientific work was performed on the topic «Information and analytical support of the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic in 2004-2019». The aim of the work is to study the course of foreign policy of the Slovak Republic and the role of its information and analytical support in the period from 2004 to 2019. When writing the article, such methods were used as: dialectical, which will determine the ways of scientific research and explore the phenomenon of information security; – hypothetical-deductive – a method designed to familiarize with the factual material that requires theoretical explanation; – assumptions – this method helps to establish the causes and patterns of phenomena using many logical techniques; – content analysis – is a method of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the array of information to obtain objective, structured and generalized information about the course of events in the period specified in the study; – the method of SWOT-analysis allows to process the whole layer of information and structure it by categories (strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities). The paper analyzes foreign and domestic sources on the theory of information and analytical support of foreign policy, identifies areas of this activity, considers the course of foreign policy of Slovakia in 2004- 2019, and explores the institutions and services of its information and analytical support of foreign policy. The study also presents a SWOT analysis of Slovakia’s information and analytical support services and their impact on the country’s foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important tools for forming and positively correcting the country’s image in the world is the institution of public diplomacy, which, unlike traditional diplomacy, which is carried out at the government level and often hidden from public opinion, is an open communication process aimed at developing contacts and mutual understanding. governments, nongovernmental organizations and citizens of foreign countries, and the main methods of which are broad information, cultural and educational programs. In almost all spheres of public life, the processes of globalization are intensifying, creating significant challenges in the field of foreign policy, forcing world actors, including states, to find new forms, methods and tools of interaction and information and communication influence. This is the purpose of public diplomacy of Slovak Republic, which aims to promote the national interests of the state and ensure its national security by studying foreign public opinion, informing external audiences about their own policies and influencing those who shape this opinion. “Public diplomacy” has several dimensions, which also include the areas of state image creation or creation of a national brand, international public relations, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the conceptual approaches to the analysis of the particular problems, structural and dynamic aspects of the transition to democracy in Slovakia. The complexity and nonlinearity of democratic transit in Slovakia underline the advisability of applying an integrative scheme for studying socio-political transformations. The theoretical and methodological potential of the transitological prism and alternative approaches to the study of sociopolitical transformations in Slovakia are analyzed. In the Slovak political context, theoretical models of Z. Brzezinski, K. von Beyme, W. Merkel, S. Levitsky, L. Wey, J. Linz, A. Stepan, G. Pridham, A. Croissant are adapted. In the context of the current tendencies of socio-political development of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the importance of clarifying the degree of realization of the «potential of consolidated democracy» is emphasized, which actualizes the further elaboration of adequate explanatory schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slovakia’s transition to a consolidated democracy was successfully completed, but its transit trajectory was more complicated than in other countries of Central Europe. The features of the national-political transformation in Slovakia in the context of the transition to democracy are explained in the article. The main factors that influenced the division of Czechoslovakia and the emergence of an independent Slovakia were analyzed. The issues of democratization and national integration in Slovakia in the middle of 1990s are emphasized. The national-political transformation in Slovakia represent ongoing consolidation processes at the level of civil society and civil political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slovakia’s transition to a consolidated democracy was successfully completed, but its transit trajectory was more complicated than in other Central European countries. The purpose of the article is to analyze the preconditions and factors of the transition to democracy in Slovakia at different stages of transformation. In the Slovak Republic the dynamics of the transformation processes demonstrated the interdependence of the influence of procedural factors and the structural context. Transformation processes in Slovakia were complicated by the conflict type of political culture, as well as the presence of numerous social and political cleavages, the fragmentation of the political elite, the problems of national state–building, authoritarian tendencies in 1994–1998. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the development of relations between the state and the non–governmental sector in the context of social and political transformations in Slovakia after 1989. The role of non–governmental organizations in the struggle against authoritarian tendencies in 1994–1998 was emphasized. The main problems in the interaction between the state and the non–governmental sector in Slovakia are outlined. Relations between the government and the third sector in Slovak Republic were difficult for different approaches of the ruling coalition to cooperate with public organizations. It is concluded that the third sector has become one of the stimulator of democratic transformation in Slovak Republic, which is a factor of successful integration in the EU and NATO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the Slovak electoral system after 1990 and the change of its structural elements are analyzed. The political goals and consequences of changing the electoral law, as well as the factors that influenced the modification of the electoral system were determined. The author highlighted the main problems of the functioning of the Slovak electoral system in the following aspects: distribution of seats, voting on the preferential system, representation of the regions in the parliament, electoral participation and political fragmentation. The indicated problems and discussion points necessitate further improvement of the electoral system in the Slovak Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hileya: Scientific Bulletin / Gileya is the property of GILEYA Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)