Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 7 / No. 1 / 1997
Mojmír Benža
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Jakubovo nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
Everybody, who intends to pursue the issues of the rights and the status
of persons belonging to ethnic minorities in Europe, should primarily realize
the political, demographic and ethnic composition of the whole of Europe,
which is the result of long, complex and often also conflicting historical
development. Within European international politics, the issues of ethnic
minorities and the rights and position of persons belonging to them have
in recent years been presented as if these problems existed only in the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as if persons belonging to ethnic
minorities lived only there. However, this is not true, members of ethnic
minorities live in all European countries, including Western Europe.
pp. 3-14
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Richard Marsina
Faculty of Humanities, University of Trnava,
Hornopotoèná 23, 918 43 Trnava, Slovakia
The generally prevailing opinion is that Slovaks are descendants of
the Slavs (Slovens) who lived in this territory during and before the 9th
century. The Hungarian historian J. Karácsonyi (1901) was the only
one to suppose that the local indigenous Slavs had died out or had become
Magyars and that contemporary Slovaks are the progeny of the White Croats
who arrived from the north and north-west by the twelfth century. The Czech
historian Václav Chaloupecký (1923) maintained that the Slovaks
are really Czechs by origin but their almost 1000-years' existence in the
Kingdom of Hungary led to their separation from the Czechs. This is not
correct since, according to contemporary sources (Annals of Fulda) the
Moravians (living to the west of the Slovaks) were also considered to be
an independent people in the 9th century. The Slovaks also have to be regarded
as an independent people, who have not created their own ethnonymum but
their female is "Sloven-ka", language is "sloven-ský",
the country is "Sloven-sko".
pp. 15-23
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Ján Bunèák
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 913 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The social changes taking place in Slovakia since 1989 have had a number
of consequences for the everyday life of its inhabitants. A new nation-state
with a democratic political regime has been formed, a market economy has
been restored, human values, human aspirations, and models of behaviour,
the way of life has also changed. Democracy and the market mechanism create
a new milieu which provides new possibilities and simultaneously limits
other earlier habituated modes of satisfying demands. The consequences
of democracy and the market mechanism in economic life have changed the
way of life of the people.
pp. 24-33
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Róbert Roško
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The article rests on the database obtained in summer 1995 within the
Czech-Polish-Slovak research project "Actors and strategies of social
transformation and modernization". The author compares the democratization
potential of Slovak citizens (956 respondents) with the compatible potential
of Czech citizens (1,233) and Polish citizens (2,000). In agreement with
the project he underlines the necessity to distinguish three types of civil
actors: individual, associated in groups (political parties, civic movements),
and generalized (state administration).
pp. 34-46
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Pavol Petruf
Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The article examines the question of which issues of the 1946 parliamentary
elections in Czecho-Slovakia received primary attention from French diplomats
working in Prague and in Bratislava: the issue concerning the elections,
which was in the centre of the interest of French diplomats, namely to
what extent the election results would affect the solution of the relations
between the Czechs and Slovaks after the war, is analysed separately. Some
confidential talks between the Ambassador Maurice Dejean and President
Edvard Beneš concerning the electoral prognoses and election results are
described and commented on.
pp. 47-63
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Susumu Nagayo
Waseda University, 1-104 Totsuka-machi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-50, Japan
It is undeniable that after the collapse of the socialist regimes in
Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the bilateral relations between Slovakia
and Hungary, which had been apparently calm during the previous forty years,
again turned into a grave international issue. Especially after the formation
of the independent Slovak Republic on January 1, 1993, Slovak-Hungarian
relations became sharper and more direct in character, to become the most
complicated bilateral relations in Central Europe.
pp. 64-76
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Iveta Námerová
Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics,
Trenèianska 55, 824 80 Bratislava, Slovakia
The paper is concerned with the problems of agrarian reform in Slovakia
in a historical context. It looks at the development of cooperatives, state
farms and private agriculture.
In 1990, research was done on views of privatization in agriculture. Later
development confirmed that interest in private enterprise was less than
expected.
In the framework of the international research project "Rural Employment
and Rural Regeneration in Post Socialist Central Europe", the impact
of transformation on the countryside and agriculture was studied. The research
was done in cooperation with Liverpool University, Poland, the Czech Republic
and Hungary. It was supported by funds from the European Union. The transformation
process in the countryside was accompanied by negative phenomena: increased
unemployment and growing criminality. Positive developments can be seen
in the area of small and middle sized businesses.
pp. 77-85
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Marián Gálik
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
This is slightly enlarged speech delivered at the opening session of
the workshop entitled: The Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual
Impact, June 23-28, 1996, at the Maiersdorf Faculty Club, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus. Its aim is to point out the importance
of one of the most weighty problems of our times: the spirit of interreligious
understanding on the basis of the biblical legacy.
pp. 86-93
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Reports and book reviews
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