<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This theoretical paper discusses the controversial development of civil society in the new member states (NMS) over a quarter century of systemic change and after 10 years of EU membership. In doing so, it attempts to elaborate a new conceptual framework for the decline of top-down democracy and the return to democratisation as a bottom-up process. This study of the bumpy course of NMS civil society analyses the gap between large formal legal institutions and small local informal ones and emphasises the need for participatory democracy if democracy in the NMS is to be sustainable. In fact, in this quarter century, two faces of informal institutions have emerged, reflecting the tension between genuine civil society organisations and large corrupt clientele networks. The mass emergence of these “negative” informal institutions has led to a situation of state capture and a democratic façade often analysed in the NMS academic literature. The study concludes that after the political and policy-learning processes of the last 25 years, there are now some signs of a participatory turn in the bottom-up process of NMS democratisation.</abstract>

The Bumpy Road of Civil Society in the New Member States: From State Capture to the Renewal of Civil Society

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article analyses development of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union (PermRep) from 2004, when the Czech Republic joined the European Union, until 2013. Its main aim is to test four concepts related to the three neoinstitutionalist theories – firstly, the path dependency and critical junctures models related to the historical neo-institutionalism, secondly principal-agent relation typical for the rational neo-institutionalism and the concept of the logic of appropriateness related to the sociological institutionalism. The authors try to determine which of these four models have the best explanatory potential when it comes to the development of the Czech PermRep. After analysing three independent variables (changes in executive, EU Council Presidency, EU strategies), and their impact on the dependent variable (character of the Czech PermRep), the authors conclude that particularly historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism models have the greatest explanatory power while the contribution of rational institutionalism model of principal-agent is relatively weak.</abstract>

I Do It My Way: Analysis of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper deals with the Hungarian Holocaust Memorial Year 2014 and the ongoing debate about how to assess Hungary’s involvement in the Holocaust. By introducing the Holocaust Memorial Year 2014, erecting the Monument on the German Occupation and initiating a Memorial to Child Victims of the Holocaust (the House of Fates), the Hungarian government tried to establish a common narrative about the Holocaust in Hungary. For various reasons, however, this attempt failed. Instead, it turned out that the anniversary year 2014 fostered the emergence of diverse new cultures of commemoration at different levels of society. This study discusses the reasons for these developments and provides an overview of the (public) events surrounding commemorations in the Holocaust Memorial Year, thus exploring Hungary’s process of coming to terms with its past. The events in 2014 were accompanied by disputes at multiple levels that were held in the public domain and involved all types of traditional and modern media. This study highlights the reactions to several statements and explains how they came about. Our aim is to engender interest in further scholarly examination.</abstract>

Hungary and the Distortion of Holocaust History: The Hungarian Holocaust Memorial Year 2014

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper presents the results of an experimental study of Polish students’ attitudes towards their government’s remembrance policy (or, in other words, the intentional narration and interpretation of the past by the government). It includes four parts: a justification of why remembrance is a significant political asset in post-Communist Poland; a classification of remembrance policy instruments; a presentation of general results of the study; and a discussion of participants’ attitudes to particular policy instruments. In our assessment of the general results, we discuss three types of collected data: the results of the initial measurement of attitudes; the results of measurement after the manipulation of emotions (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and commitment (no commitment vs. low commitment); and the results in terms of attitude change. In the section on attitudes to particular instruments, we compare participants’ support for different commemorative actions with their support for the governments’ dominant role in the popularising of remembrance narratives. The study’s results lead us to formulate three conclusions about the relationships between attitudes to the policy and Polish political culture.</abstract>

Attitudes towards the Government’s Remembrance Policy in Poland: Results of an Experimental Study

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Images about politics take a specific form in the imagination of the electorate, eliciting specific associations and thus becoming a source of attitudes and influencing election preferences. At the same time, the increasing importance of politicians’ perceived personality traits and images has been observed. Empirical studies of politicians’ personalities provide one of the more effective tools for studying the basic features of the personalisation of politics, including at a local level. Such studies involve the measurement of citizens’ perceptions of politicians’ personality traits. This article seeks to systematise key concepts and provide an introduction to conducting advanced empirical research in this area.</abstract>

The Personalisation of Politics at the Local Level in Poland and Selected Central and Eastern European States: A Contribution to the Research

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">It is of critical importance for every newly established state to receive international recognition. The Soviet Union strongly supported the unity and territorial integrity of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and considered the latter’s break-up within the context of its own disintegration. The article sets out Slovenia’s efforts to gain Russian recognition of Slovenian independence and sovereignty, as described in Soviet and Russian diplomatic sources, official statements and comments from academic circles. It aims to demonstrate that Moscow’s decision on this subject was the result of the momentary overlapping of various international developments along with a new Russian foreign policy strategy (which changed frequently and was, thus, exceptional in the Russian foreign policy tradition). Especially important in this context were the internal political tensions in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.</abstract>

In the Eyes of the Collapsing Empire: Yugoslavia’s Disintegration and Slovenian Independence as seen through Russian Diplomatic Sources (1990–1992)

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Politics in Central Europe

 POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE publishes original, double-blind, peer-reviewed manuscripts that provide scientific essays focusing on issues in comparative politics, policy analysis, international relations and other sub-disciplines of political science, as well as original theoretical or conceptual analyses. The essays should contribute to a broad understanding of the region of Central Europe.  The journal does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 