From 'Civil Society' to 'Europe' (International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology)

From “Civil Society” to “Europe”......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Dedication......Page 8
Contents......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 14
Introduction: The Objectives of this Book......Page 16
Constitution and constitutionalism: a sociological approach......Page 20
Postcommunist dilemmas and sources of popular frustration......Page 25
Theoretical background of this book......Page 30
Empirical context......Page 33
Prologue: Between “Civil Society” and “Europe”: Round Tables in East Central Europe as Political and Legal Events......Page 38
Round tables as political events......Page 42
Round tables and the legality of the transformations......Page 52
Constitutional outcomes of round tables......Page 58
Consequences of the round tables in subsequent change......Page 63
I A Constitution as a Theory of Society......Page 66
Postcommunism critiqued......Page 68
Constitutional instrumentalism......Page 72
The “Empty Space” proposition as justification of constitutional instrumentalism......Page 76
Non-fictive, context-bound reflexive constitutionalism......Page 80
The constitution as a theory of society within society......Page 87
Constitutional instrumentalism versus the reflexive approach \rto the constitution......Page 92
II Stalinist Constitutionalism......Page 96
Typical features of Stalinist constitutionalism......Page 97
Theoretical foundations of the Stalinist political system......Page 101
Axiology of Stalinist constitutionalism......Page 106
System legitimization: the unarticulated social contract and negative constitutional consensus......Page 109
Stalinist constitutionalism and the need for a new constitutional semantics......Page 113
III In Search of a New Semantics: Discursive Resources of Postcommunist Constitutionalism......Page 116
Recent constitutional history: the context for  democratic constitutionalism......Page 118
Recent constitutional history in its narrow sense......Page 123
The return of civil society, reintroduction of morality, and renaissance of history in the public sphere after the Gulag experience......Page 129
Interpretations of the rule of law......Page 134
The Eastern European syndrome: a brief outline of \rdifficult legacies, old and new......Page 138
The semantic endowment of the new constitutions......Page 143
IV Settling Accounts with the Past and the Dilemmas of the Law-Governed State......Page 148
The constitutive potential of the difficult past: the right to truth, \rto remembrance, and to restitution of property rights as part \rof identity restoration......Page 151
Two legacies of stalinist totalitarianism......Page 157
Structural and mental legacies of the semantics used to legitimize state crimes......Page 162
Legacies of mass scale expropriations......Page 168
Knowledge as power: the paradoxes of democracy and model approaches......Page 175
Dilemmas of the law-governed state principle......Page 185
“Alienating justice” or a positive constitutional consensus?......Page 193
V Dividing the Cake: The Constitutionalization of Economic Order......Page 200
Privatization in the eyes of economists and sociologists......Page 205
Institutional optimism and sociological realism......Page 211
Anarchy, semi-legalized anarchy, and blurring the line between\nstate-owned and private property......Page 218
The constitution versus mundane economic processes after the collapse of communism in East Central Europe......Page 227
Conclusions: written constitutions and emerging realities......Page 232
Summing Up: Thirteen Theses on Postcommunist Constitutionalism......Page 236
Appendix One: Election Particpation \nin Eastern Europe......Page 250
Appendix Two: Satisfaction with Democracy in Eastern Europe......Page 251
Appendix Three: Satisfaction with the Actually Realized Model of Democracy in Particular Countries......Page 252
Appendix Four: Comparison of Evaluations of Democracy and Market Economy in Action in Particular Countries......Page 253
Bibliography......Page 254
Index......Page 266