The political systems that have replaced communist rule in East-Central Europe and Eurasia are closely associated with their presidents. The first democratically-elected presidents of these countries - men like Yeltsin, Havel and Waesa - have frequently been viewed as 'founding fathers' of their countries' independence. But were they successful in creating strong presidential systems in these states? Has their unquestioned personal power and charisma been institutionalized in the presidencies? Will executive power in postcommunist states remain the same when the first incumbents of the office are gone? This book, first published in 1997, offers a comparative analysis of the role of presidents in postcommunist states. Comprising studies of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakstan among former Soviet republics, and Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary among Central European states, this book will be required reading for readers interested in how political leaders affect the fate of democracy in
The political systems that have replaced communist rule in East-Central Europe and Eurasia are closely associated with their presidents. The first democratically-elected presidents of these countries - men like Yeltsin, Havel and Waesa - have frequently been viewed as 'founding fathers' of their countries' independence. But were they successful in creating strong presidential systems in these states? Has their unquestioned personal power and charisma been institutionalized in the presidencies? Will executive power in postcommunist states remain the same when the first incumbents of the office are gone? This book, first published in 1997, offers a comparative analysis of the role of presidents in postcommunist states. Comprising studies of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakstan among former Soviet republics, and Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary among Central European states, this book will be required reading for readers interested in how political leaders affect the fate of democracy in
In this stunning collection, internationally acclaimed writer David Malouf gives us bookish boys and taciturn men, strong women and wayward sons, fathers and daughters, lovers and husbands, a composer
Negative theology or apophasis - the idea that God is best identified in terms of 'absence', 'otherness', 'difference' - has been influential in modern Christian thought, resonating as it does with secular notions of negation developed in continental philosophy. Apophasis also has a strong intellectual history dating back to the early Church Fathers. Silence and the Word both studies the history of apophasis and examines its relationship with contemporary secular philosophy. Leading Christian thinkers explore in their own way the extent to which the concept of the apophatic illumines some of the deepest doctrinal structures of Christian faith, and of Christian self-understanding both in terms of its historical and contemporary situatedness, showing how a dimension of negativity has characterised not only traditional mysticism but most forms of Christian thought over the years.
