Contesting Europe: Strategies and Legacies in Polish Political Competition

This essay explores positions on European integration in the campaigns of a number of mainstream Polish political parties in recent elections. It shows how contestations of the European Union have, to some extent, been driven by strategic considerations related to inter-party competition. In Poland's fluid party landscape, political actors have sometimes relied on Euroscepticism to create seemingly clear lines of division between themselves and their political competitors. Yet these Eurosceptic views interact with, and are therefore also constrained by, certain legacies: ideas on the relationship between Europe and Poland that are already part of the cultural context.     

Folgerungen aus dem Lissabonurteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts

Das Lissabonurteil des deutschen Bundesverfassungsgerichts hat gro?e Aufmerksamkeit erzeugt, die keineswegs auf Deutschland beschr?nkt blieb. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob die vom Bundesverfassungsgericht gezogenen Schlussfolgerungen auch die Rechtslage in ?sterreich tangieren. Insbesondere stellt sich die Frage, ob eine allf?llige Gesamt?nderung der Bundesverfassung durch den Vertrag von Lissabon neu zu diskutieren w?re. Schlie?lich behandelt der Beitrag auch die Frage, ob der Vertrag von Lissabon zwingend eine ?nderung der parlamentarischen Mitwirkungsrechte in ?sterreich erfordert.     

Terrorism in the federal republic of Germany and Italy: Legacy of the ‘68 movement or ‘burden of fascism’?

In Italy and in the German Federal Republic rebel movements occurred in political cultures where the burden of Fascism shapes patterns of perceptions and orientations. The movements are seen as particularly threatening and this elicits a very aggressive response. On the other hand, the movement in its turn interprets this response as a residue of the Fascist past or as a correspondingly aggressive manner. This configuration creates a special escalation dynamic. German and Italian Fascism differed fundamentally and that difference is also displayed in the struggles which began two decades after Fascism was destroyed.