From Black Death to Black Hole

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Piatkowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Black Death ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Past

In this chapter I explain why Poland and most countries in Eastern Europe have always lagged behind Western Europe in economic development. I discuss why in the past the European continent split into two parts and how Western and Eastern Europe followed starkly different developmental paths. I then demonstrate how Polish oligarchic elites built extractive institutions and how they adopted ideologies, cultures, and values, which undermined development from the late sixteenth century to 1939. I also describe how the elites created a libertarian country without taxes, state capacity, and rule of law, and how this ‘golden freedom’ led to Poland’s collapse and disappearance from the map of Europe in 1795. I argue that Polish extractive society was so well established that it could not reform itself from the inside. It was like a black hole, where the force of gravity is so strong that the light could not come out.

The Long Parliament and the Law of Necessity in Seventeenth-Century England*

2020 ◽  
Vol 247 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-35
Author(s):  
John M Collins
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The Past ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Continued Use ◽  
Legal Concepts

Abstract The ability to claim an eminent right over property was central to the parliamentary war effort. Relying on a narrative of necessity that jurists in both England and in western Europe had increasingly used since the end of the sixteenth century, MPs gave the English political public a narrative parallel to that of a beggar in extreme duress: in order for it to survive, the property rights of English subjects needed to give way. Scholars have noted the Long parliament's use of necessity in the past in order to disassociate the causes of the Civil War from a ‘rule of law’ ideology or to make a claim that Parliament made a novel political theory of emergency. Yet the Long parliament was not abandoning English law nor was it generating a novel theory of emergency. Instead, it was relying on legal concepts that jurists and Crown officials commonly used to advance the power of the state. This law of necessity was controversial, however, and the Long parliament's continued use of it generated conflict even as it also enabled MPs to seize control over England's armed forces.

Modernism, Functionalism, and Tradition: The Music of Friedrich Goldmann

Tempo ◽  
1995 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Alastair Williams
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The West ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Past ◽  
High Modernism ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Socialist Politics

The current reappraisal of tradition, along with an interest in a music that deals with concrete emotions and which has a direct appeal to audiences, sounds a certain resonance with the aesthetic doctrines that prevailed in the former communist bloc. A sense of history is vital to socialist politics, but the availability of a symphonic tradition to Soviet composers after a break with that heritage suggests a state of posthistoire; a condition normally associated with postmodernism. The postmodernist reappraisal of the past is anticipated by, for example, Shostakovich's complex and sometimes ironic relationship to the symphonic tradition. Conservative traditionalism in the East maintained to be a critique of high modernist principles; in the West, ironically, a turn to tradition is now put forward as an alternative to the same rationalist modernism. At the moment when the achievements of the historical avant-garde and of high modernism have become fully available to the former Eastern Europe, the former Western Europe is engaged with the reappraisal of tradition. Even where a modernist music did develop in Eastern Europe – as, for example, it did in Poland – it was followed by a move back to more traditional techniques. The consequence of this inclination is that composers such as Górecki and Pärt, who employ traditionally-based expressive languages, have shot onto centre stage. The point is that composers from the former communist bloc have already encountered many of the issues that now preoccupy some contemporary composers in the capitalist West.

Sliding Towards EC Membership: Norway in Scandinavian Perspective

1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Svåsand ◽  
Ulf Lindström
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Abrupt Change ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Single European Act ◽  
East West

THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM OF NORWEGIAN membership in the EC. Why is it so difficult for Norway to follow in the tracks of Sweden and Finland, and for that matter the rest of Western Europe?The changes on the European continent since the collapse of the East-West divide have also altered the political agenda in the Scandinavian countries. The ambitions of the EC-internal market as well as the Single European Act speeded up a discussion of how Finland, Norway and Sweden should position themselves in order not to lose out economically and become marginalized politically. In Norway, the traumatic EC debate in 1972 had split the country, and the parties, into two camps, resulting in the rejection of EC membership by 53 per cent of the electorate. Since then, the issue has been absent from political debate. In Finland and Sweden the official rationale for not discussing the issue disappeared simultaneously with the regimes in Eastern Europe, suddenly pushing the topic onto the political agenda, causing an abrupt change in Swedish EC policy.

De-Orientalizing the Western Gaze on Eastern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-162
Author(s):  
Barbara Christophe
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
Publishing Houses

Comparing narratives of the Soviet occupation in 1940 in current textbooks by two leading Lithuanian publishing houses, I claim that Lithuanian textbooks offer diverging accounts, which mirror to a large extent the opposing mnemonic frames supported by two rival political camps. I also show that the same textbooks tame those differences by transcending the politically charged frames they have chosen in the first place, presenting, for example, the USSR as both villain and victim of the war. Considering the relevance of these findings for our understanding of dynamics of remembering in general and in the Lithuanian culture of memory in particular, I point out that embracing the political inherent in all acts of recalling the past does not necessarily lead to politicized, i.e. narrow-minded memories, and I reflect on what these mnemonic practices mean for reevaluating the traditional role of Eastern Europe as the backward other of Western Europe.

Uses of the Past: Archaeology in the Service of the State (1987)

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don D. Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
New World ◽  
The State ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Symbolic Resource

Nation states, or partisans thereof, control and allocate symbolic resources as one means of legitimizing power and authority, and in pursuit of their perceived nationalistic goals and ideologies. A major symbolic resource is the past. In this chapter I review three cases in which the past and, in particular, relevant archaeological resources were ‘used’ for such purposes, and I refer to several other well-known instances. The three cases discussed are Mexico from c.AD 900 to the present, Britain from c.AD 1500 to the present, and the People’s Republic of China since 1949. The implications of such uses in relation to archaeological theories and interpretations are discussed. In The Uses of the Past, Herbert Müller (1952) sought for ‘certainty of meaning’ in an analysis of the development of Western civilization. The only certainty he found was that the past has many uses. This chapter is concerned with some specific uses of the past: (1) how nation state rulers and bureaucrats have manipulated the past for nationalist purposes, both ideological and chauvinistic, and to legitimize their authority and power; (2) how nation states have used archaeological sites, artefacts, and theories for such purposes; (3) how these uses of the past relate to more general questions about the intellectual and socio-political contexts in which archaeology is conducted. The importance to the state of using or manipulating its past is neatly delineated in two great dystopian novels, George Orwell’s (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Aldous Huxley’s (1932) Brave New World. In the former, the Ministry of Truth totally revamps the past as needed to justify and lend ‘truth’ to the immediate requirements, actions, and policies of the state. In the latter, the past is blotted out. As the Resident World Controller for Western Europe, Mustafa Mond tells the Savage, ‘we haven’t any use for old things here’ (Huxley 1932: 200). In both cases, control and manipulation of the past or its complete denial is critical to state ideology and purposes.

scholarly journals 1989 as a Lens for the Communist Past and Post-communist Future

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFFREY KOPSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Significant Variation ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The Past ◽  
Antecedent Conditions ◽  
Proximate Factors ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
The Impact

AbstractPolitical scientists have documented significant variation in political and economic outcomes of the 1989–91 revolutions. Countries bordering on western Europe have become relatively democratic and economically successful, with both democracy and wealth dropping off as one moves east and south. Explanations for this variation and the replication of an older pattern on the Eurasian landmass have moved farther and farther into the past. Yet in moving to the longue durée, more proximate events such as the revolutions of 1989, the demise of communism and even the communist experience itself recede into the background and are themselves accounted for by antecedent conditions. The article discusses how two more proximate factors helped to change older patterns in central and eastern Europe: the impact of communist modernisation and the prospect of European integration.

scholarly journals Foreign Experience of Legal Support Privatization and the Possibility of its Use in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-516
Author(s):  
Roman Victorovich Myroniuk ◽  
Anatolii Matviichuk ◽  
Olena Hrabylnikova ◽  
Olesia Marchenko
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
North America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Attention ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
Effective Activity ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Legitimate Interests

Successful examples of legal support privatization in a number of developed foreign countries are analyzed. In particular, the main attention was paid to the analysis of the experience of legal support privatization in developed and democratic countries of North America and Western Europe. The possibility and peculiarity of the procedure of introduction of specific forms and methods of legal support of the processes related to privatization in Ukraine are established. It is stated that privatization is one of the most significant phenomena both in the economy of a particular state and in society as a whole. It is noted that the proper legal enforcement and support of all privatization-related processes determine whether the economic development and prosperity of the state will take place, or, conversely, it will decline and suffer significant losses. It is noted that in connection with the gradual rapprochement of Ukraine with European states and their standards, the problem of inventing the most appropriate and relevant privatization of certain state or municipal enterprises is becoming more acute. At the same time, researchers prefer to conduct a qualitative analysis of the processes of privatization of state property that has taken place in the past in more detail, based on certain newly discovered facts. Among other things, it is considered necessary to check whether the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens, as well as the state, have been violated during the privatization process.Keywords: Privatization Legal Support; Implementation; Effective Activity; Qualitative Regulation; Research of Processes and PhenomenaPengalaman Asing Dalam Privatisasi Dukungan Hukum dan Peluang Penerapannya di Ukraina AbstrakContoh sukses privatisasi dukungan hukum di sejumlah negara maju asing dianalisis. Secara khusus, perhatian utama diberikan pada analisis pengalaman privatisasi dukungan hukum di negara-negara maju dan demokratis di Amerika Utara dan Eropa Barat. Kemungkinan dan kekhasan prosedur pengenalan bentuk khusus dan metode dukungan hukum dari proses yang terkait dengan privatisasi di Ukraina ditetapkan. Disebutkan bahwa privatisasi adalah salah satu fenomena paling signifikan baik dalam perekonomian suatu negara tertentu maupun dalam masyarakat secara keseluruhan. Penegakan hukum yang tepat dan dukungan dari semua proses terkait privatisasi menentukan apakah pembangunan ekonomi dan kemakmuran negara akan berlangsung, atau sebaliknya, akan menurun dan menderita kerugian yang signifikan. Sehubungan dengan pemulihan hubungan Ukraina secara bertahap dengan negara-negara Eropa dan standar mereka, masalah menciptakan privatisasi yang paling tepat dan relevan dari perusahaan negara bagian atau kota tertentu menjadi lebih akut. Pada saat yang sama, peneliti lebih memilih untuk melakukan analisis kualitatif terhadap proses privatisasi barang milik negara yang telah terjadi di masa lalu secara lebih rinci, berdasarkan fakta-fakta tertentu yang baru ditemukan. Antara lain, dipandang perlu untuk memeriksa apakah hak, kebebasan, dan kepentingan sah warga negara, serta negara, telah dilanggar selama proses privatisasi.Kata Kunci: Dukungan Hukum Privatisasi; Pelaksanaan; Kegiatan Efektif; Regulasi Kualitatif; Penelitian Proses dan Fenomena. Зарубежный опыт правового обеспечения приватизации и возможность его использования в УкраинеАннотацияПроанализированы успешные примеры правового обеспечения приватизации в ряде развитых зарубежных стран. В частности, основное внимание было уделено анализу опыта правового обеспечения приватизации в развитых и демократических странах Северной Америки и Западной Европы. Установлены особенность процедуры введения конкретных форм и методов правового обеспечения процессов, связанных с приватизацией в Украине. Констатировано, что приватизация является одной из наиболее значимых явлений как в экономике конкретного государства, так и в обществе в целом. От надлежащего правового обеспечения и сопровождения всех связанных с приватизацией процессов зависит будет ли происходить экономическое развитие и процветание государства, или же наоборот она испытывает упадок и получит существенные убытки. В связи с постепенным приближением Украины к европейским государствам и их стандартов, все более остро встает проблема изобретение наиболее уместного и актуального проведения приватизации определенных государственных или коммунальных предприятий. Вместе с тем, исследователи предпочитают более детализировано, опираясь на определенные вновь открывшиеся факты, провести качественный анализ тех процессов приватизации государственной собственности, которые произошли в прошлом. Среди прочего, признается необходимым проверить, не были ли нарушены при проведении приватизации права, свободы и законные интересы граждан, а также интересы государства.Ключевые слова: приватизация, правовое обеспечение, эффективная деятельность, качественная регламентация, исследования процессов и явлений

Professor Schroeder’s Report on Soviet Economic Development Trade with Eastern Europe: A Comment

1975 ◽  
Vol 41 (02) ◽  
pp. 167-172
Author(s):  
F. Praussello
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Dominance ◽  
Main Period ◽  
Made In

In my comment paper on Professor Schroeder’s report (1974) I shall discuss two points. First of all I intend to examine whether the benefits that the Soviet Union gained and is gaining from its trade with the Comecon countries can be meant as due to «exploitation » or a « discrimination » against them. The second topic on which Professor Schroeder’s paper (1974) mainly caught my attention is that of Comecon integration. In the last part of my paper I shall therefore attempt an evaluation of the integration efforts within the Comecon compared with the parallel efforts made in Western Europe in the framework of the EEC. In the economics relationships between the Soviet Union and the Comecon countries Professor Schroeder (1974) distinguishes two main periods and argues that until 1956 the Soviet Union benefited from a net capital transfert from Eastern Europe, whose size however cannet be specified. This «unequal partnership » was made possible by the political dominance of the Soviet Union and its means were war reparations, unrequited export deliveries to Eastern Europe and discriminatory pricing in trade. Professor Schroeder (1974) seems therefore to support the opinion that during the first main period in the Comecon’s life. the Soviet Union, in a sense, « exploited » and « discriminated » its socialist partners in Eastern Europe.

3. Ghettos of the imagination

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-60
Author(s):  
Bryan Cheyette
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
19Th Century America ◽  
The 19Th Century

With the destruction of ghetto gates by Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, actual ghettos were replaced by imagined ones. ‘Ghettos of the imagination’ explores 19th-century ghetto literature. This literature crossed borders—for example, the exportation of British writer Israel Zangwill’s bestselling fiction to America. Late 19th-century America saw a huge influx of Eastern European refugees fleeing pogroms, leading to the establishment of large urban Jewish communities in its cities. Early French and German ghetto literature portrayed the ghetto as romantic and culturally rich, and associated it with the past. By the end of the 19th century, the free-floating ghetto had moved to the present, across to America, and from Western Europe to Eastern Europe.

The Theme to Be Explored

1950 ◽  
Vol 10 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Carter Goodrich
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Business Enterprise ◽  
Underdeveloped Countries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Progress ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth

The tenth annual meeting of the Economic History Association was devoted to the roles of government and business enterprise in the promotion of economic development. The question was applied to cases of rapid economic growth in the past—the creation of oceanic commerce, the building of the American railroads, the rise of modern industry—and to current attempts to promote the recovery of western Europe and the economic progress of the underdeveloped countries.

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