CONTENTS - NUMBER 1, JUNE 1996

A r t i c l e s

MÁRIA NEMČEKOVÁ: Can the World Order Be Created without the Order in Man? ...3
MÁRIA ČAMBÁLIKOVÁ: Institutions of Social Partnership - legality and Legitimacy ...9
FRANTIŠEK OSLANSKÝ: The Role of John Jiskra in the History of Slovakia ...19
M. MARK STOLARIK: Slovak Historians in Exile in North America, 1945-1992 ...34
KEVIN JAMES: Women in Transition: The Role of the Woman in the Czech Republic and Slovakia post 1989 ...45
LADISLAV MACHÁČEK: Tendencies in the Transformation of the Youth Movement in Slovakia after 1989 ...63
DANA DOMIKOVÁ-HASHIMOTO: Japan and Capital Punishment ...77

B o o k  R e v i e w s

Ivo BUDIL: Mýtus, jazyk a kulturní antropolgie By Rastislava Stoličná...94

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CAN THE WORLD ORDER BE CREATED WITHOUT THE ORDER IN MAN? (ON THE ISSUE OF POWER AND HUMAN DIGNITY)

Mária NEMČEKOVÁ
Institute of Nursing, Jesenius University of Medicine, Comenius University, Sklabinská 26, 037 53 Martin, Slovakia

The author's contemplations on the relationship between power and human dignity are based on the intrapsychic sphere of experiencing power efforts and the ambivalence of human needs. Power is understood as a prerequisite, capability and part of human action associated with the way of self-confirmation in time-space which limits the life of an individual. It is precisely the way of self-confirmation in both vertical and horizontal incorporation into human relations as a precondition for creating respect for the self that assigns a value dimension to power manifestations. The world order and humanization of power are evidently impossible without the "order" which a man can create inside himself within the process of spiritual self-creation of a personality on the principle of conscience. Thus human dignity also becomes a power, strength of spirit, which provides an individual with the capability to decide competently about the self and others.
pp. 3-8

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INSTITUTIONS OF SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP - LEGALITY AND LEGITIMACY

Monika ČAMBÁLIKOVÁ
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

When Theodor Geiger analysed institutionalization (which he also called democratization) of the class struggle, he pointed to the interconnection between this process and corporativism and the issues of power participation and of common decision-making of organized interest groups. He wrote: "The basis of democratic class struggle is organization and its method is consensus. People do not act as individuals but as members of parties, trade unions and associations of different kinds. But in fact, it is not a struggle. It is rather a cartel of organizations worked out in detail. Organizations develop new procedures to push their particular interests into the political process. They show their common interest in controlling the pie. It is naturally the pie of measures hiding the control of power through organization." (Dahrendorf 1991, p. 178)
pp. 9-18

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THE ROLE OF JOHN JISKRA IN THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA

František OSLANSKÝ
Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

From the 1440s, John Jiskra of Brandýs, who originated from the Moravian branch of the Czech nobility, became the main support in the Kingdom of Hungary of Albrecht Habsburg's widow, Elizabeth, and her six months old son Ladislas born after his father's death. Jiskra was bound for years to the Habsburg struggles for the Hungarian crown which took place chiefly in Slovakia. He was a skilful commander, diplomat, and politician. He reached the rank of a Hungarian magnate and was also able to defend his own rights. He remained true to his military service duties which had been predetermined from his youth till his death.
pp. 19-33

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SLOVAK HISTORIANS IN EXILE IN NORTH AMERICA, 1945-1992

M. Mark STOLARIK
Chair in Slovak History and Culture, University of Ottawa, Canada

Between 1945 and 1989 twenty-one Slovak émigré intellectuals in North America worked on various aspects of Slovak history. Only six of them were trained historians, while four each were journalists, ex-politicians and ex-diplomats. One each was a linguist, a philosopher and a poet. Together they produced a truly remarkable number of monographs and articles which helped to acquaint the West with various aspects of Slovak history and culture. For political reasons the output of these émigrés was largely ignored by Marxist historians in the homeland. Now that Slovakia is free from the restraints of Marxism, historians in the homeland and the émigrés in the West should acknowledge each other's work and cooperate in the writing of Slovak history.
pp. 34-44

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WOMEN IN TRANSITION: THE ROLE OF THE WOMAN IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA POST 1989

Kevin JAMES
6364 Phillips Apt. #2, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, U.S.A.

The author attempts to discern the position of women in an economic and social context during the period of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. He discusses changes that have occurred in the post-Communist countries of Slovakia and Czechia. He focuses on the two social variables of child care and the division of domestic labor and the three labor market issues of unemployment, sexually differentiated jobs, and wage differentials. The comparison between the Czech and Slovak Republics and Communist Czechoslovakia, provides some useful insights into the cultural and policy trends.
pp. 45-62

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TENDENCIES IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE YOUTH MOVEMENT IN SLOVAKIA AFTER 1989

Ladislav MACHÁČEK
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The principles of the state youth care and Programmes of Youth Support and Protection in Slovak Republic for 1992 significantly encouraged the development of out-of-school pursuits of young people in individual districts of Slovakia, helped to build a new network of associations, unions, youth initiatives as well as adult citizens with a deeper relation to youth work.
The representatives of youth civic associations keep looking for a path toward young people. This takes the form of the search for the consensus in defending specific youth interests reflected in the deepening process of pluralization of the youth movement. It is also the search for the consensus in defending universal youth interests reflected in the process of de-etatizing of the youth movement, i.e. through replacement of state paternalism by a new relation of the state to young people (best expressed by the term subsidiary).
pp. 63-76

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JAPAN AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Dana DOMIKOVÁ-HASHIMOTO
Hachiken 1, Nishi 4, 1-16-56, Nishi-ku, Sapporo 063, Japan

On March 26, 1993, three executions took place simultaneously in Japan, two in Osaka, one in Sapporo. This news stirred the attention of both media and people, and the problems of capital punishment has since then become one of country's often discussed issues of the public opinion.
pp. 77-93

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BOOK REVIEWS
pp. 94

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