Central
European University A Program
for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals
in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University
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Central
European University A Program
for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals
in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University |
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THE INSTITUTIONS OF NEW DEMOCRACIES: DO THEY MATTER?COURSE DIRECTOR:
RESOURCE PERSONS:
PURPOSE OF THE COURSE: Institutionalists believe in the formative role of social and political institutions in shaping the present and future characteristics of new democracies. Institutions can be invented, reinvented, modified, transplanted, copied or simply maintained with regard to the country's past traditions or the existing international context. The purpose of this course is to systematically investigate the function of some principal political institutions in the epoch of post-communism by using mostly comparative, historical and structuralist approaches. The main question is not so much whether the institutions change their environment or their environment change them more significantly. What is more important here to study how they interact and what consequences can be drawn from this inter-action. In the early 1990s, there were bigger hopes about the impact of democratic institutions on the post-communist societies. Some recent studies, however, suggest a more pessimistic (or realistic) scenario concerning the "deepness" of democratic social transformation. For instance, Guillermo O'Donnell speaks about the "illusion of consolidation", Charles Gati about "the mirage of democracy" while Larry Diamond even claims that the "Third Wave" of democratization is, most probably, over. The question is whether this backlash exists, and if yes, what role is played here by the new institutions. To what extent can be these institutions "blamed" for the shortcomings of democracy, or rather, do these shortcomings appear despite the democratizing impact of the institutions? The notions of "delegative democracy" or "pseudo-democracy" are used more and more extensively in the region to describe the survival and vivid presence of nepotism, corruption, clientelism etc. The course will examine the main institutions and the way they operate. The two-week long, course includes morning lectures and seminars, plus two evening lectures for 4 credits altogether. The lectures will cover the structural conditions of democracy, the executive-legislative relations, the social and constitutional-legal institutions, the party systems and the corporate groups, the main features of the post-communist state, the bureaucracies and the mass media. TIME AND PLACE: Daily lectures: 9.30 a.m. - 1.30 p.m. Faculty Tower #909. Evening lecture: p.m. Nádor Bldg #102. Public lecture: p.m. Auditorium PROGRAM: First week July 14. Monday András Bozóki (CEU) Structural and Institutional Conditions of Democracy July 15. Tuesday László Bruszt (CEU) The Transformative State July 16. Wednesday Kim Lane Scheppele (University of Pennsylvania) The Constitutional Court July 17. Thursday Zsolt Enyedi (CEU) Party Systems in European Democracies Evening lecture: Radoslaw Markowski (Polish Academy of Sciences) Party-Systems, Social Cleavages and the Legacy of Communism July 18. Friday Radoslaw Markowski (Polish Academy of Sciences) Parties and Voters in Central Europe
Second week July 21. Monday Ognyan Minchev (Sofia University) Corporate Groups and Corporate Representation July 22. Tuesday Ognyan Minchev (Sofia University) Corporate Groups under Post-Communism: Cases of Southeast Europe July 23. Wednesday Tamás Meszerics (CEU) Bureaucracies as Institutions, in Theory and Practice Evening lecture: Andrew Arato (New School University, New York) From Philadelphia to Budapest, and Back: Problems of Constitution-making July 24. Thursday András Bozóki (CEU) Presidentialism, Semi-Presidentialism and Parliamentarism July 25. Friday Iván Csaba (CEU) Welfare Institutions under Post-Communism |
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