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Defining the Sovereign Community : The Czech and Slovak Republics / Nadya Nedelsky.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Democracy, Citizenship, and ConstitutionalismPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2009Description: 1 online resource (352 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812241655
  • 9780812202892
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 943.703
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One: Awakenings -- Chapter Two: Nation-Building in the Empire's Waning Years -- Chapter Three: The First Republic: Czechoslovakism and Its Discontents -- Chapter Four: The Second Republic and the Wartime Slovak State -- Chapter Five: The Third Republic: "Putting an End to All Old Disputes" -- Chapter Six: The Communist Period: New Vows -- Chapter Seven: From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Divorce -- Chapter Eight: The Implications of the Ethnic Model of Sovereignty in Slovakia -- Chapter Nine: The Implications of the Civic Model of Sovereignty in the Czech Republic -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments
Summary: Though they shared a state for most of the twentieth century, when the Czechs and Slovaks split in 1993 they founded their new states on different definitions of sovereignty. The Czech Constitution employs a civic model, founding the state in the name of "the citizens of the Czech Republic," while the Slovak Constitution uses the more exclusive ethnic model and speaks in the voice of "the Slovak Nation."Defining the Sovereign Community asks two central questions. First, why did the two states define sovereignty so differently? Second, what impact have these choices had on individual and minority rights and participation in the two states? Nadya Nedelsky examines how the Czechs and Slovaks understood nationhood over the course of a century and a half and finds that their views have been remarkably resilient over time.These enduring perspectives on nationhood shaped how the two states defined sovereignty after the Velvet Revolution, which in turn strongly affected the status of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. Neither state has secured civic equality, but the nature of the discrimination against minorities differs. Using the civic definition of sovereignty offers stronger support for civil and minority rights than an ethnic model does. Nedelsky's conclusions challenge much analysis of the region, which tends to explain ethnic politics by focusing on postcommunist factors, especially the role of opportunistic political leaders. Defining the Sovereign Community instead examines the undervalued historical roots of political culture and the role of current constitutional definitions of sovereignty. Looking ahead, Nedelsky offers crucial evidence that nationalism may remain strong in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, even in the face of democratization and EU integration, and is an important threat to both.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780812202892

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One: Awakenings -- Chapter Two: Nation-Building in the Empire's Waning Years -- Chapter Three: The First Republic: Czechoslovakism and Its Discontents -- Chapter Four: The Second Republic and the Wartime Slovak State -- Chapter Five: The Third Republic: "Putting an End to All Old Disputes" -- Chapter Six: The Communist Period: New Vows -- Chapter Seven: From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Divorce -- Chapter Eight: The Implications of the Ethnic Model of Sovereignty in Slovakia -- Chapter Nine: The Implications of the Civic Model of Sovereignty in the Czech Republic -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Though they shared a state for most of the twentieth century, when the Czechs and Slovaks split in 1993 they founded their new states on different definitions of sovereignty. The Czech Constitution employs a civic model, founding the state in the name of "the citizens of the Czech Republic," while the Slovak Constitution uses the more exclusive ethnic model and speaks in the voice of "the Slovak Nation."Defining the Sovereign Community asks two central questions. First, why did the two states define sovereignty so differently? Second, what impact have these choices had on individual and minority rights and participation in the two states? Nadya Nedelsky examines how the Czechs and Slovaks understood nationhood over the course of a century and a half and finds that their views have been remarkably resilient over time.These enduring perspectives on nationhood shaped how the two states defined sovereignty after the Velvet Revolution, which in turn strongly affected the status of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. Neither state has secured civic equality, but the nature of the discrimination against minorities differs. Using the civic definition of sovereignty offers stronger support for civil and minority rights than an ethnic model does. Nedelsky's conclusions challenge much analysis of the region, which tends to explain ethnic politics by focusing on postcommunist factors, especially the role of opportunistic political leaders. Defining the Sovereign Community instead examines the undervalued historical roots of political culture and the role of current constitutional definitions of sovereignty. Looking ahead, Nedelsky offers crucial evidence that nationalism may remain strong in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, even in the face of democratization and EU integration, and is an important threat to both.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2022)