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Conformity and continuity may seem paradoxical at first sight. Referring to Southeast Europe research and its most formative character, Fritz Valjavec, this paradox can be solved with the help of Talcott Parsons's theoretical instruments. With the successive elimination of rivals Fritz Valjavec managed to be perceived as the expert for Southeast Europe by the political authorities before 1945. After the turning point of 1945 and by reconstructing his academic network, Valjavec instantly denied any influence during the NS-era. The evaluation of his activities in the Third Reich in fact proceeded within the framework of the newly emerging democratic values, thus helping to preserve his personal integrity. Valjavec's role as an academic and political personality was subsequently established within the new framework conditions of German society. After the foundation of the Federal Republic experts were urgently needed in Bonn that were able to look beyond the "iron curtain". Valjavec's Southeast Europe research expertise thus gained increasing relevance for the West German political system, thereby justifying the political re-establishment of Southeast Europe research at the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new SYRIZA government in Athens revived the old debate about German wartime reparations. Such demands, "seventy years after the event", have been ridiculed as a cheap sleight of hand on behalf of "bankrupt Greeks", seeking to cover their debts by tricking its largest creditor. However, Greek authorities had articulated reparation claims ever since their country was liberated from Nazi Germany's 3.5-year extremely bloody and destructive occupation. But all attempts for indemnification were brought to a standstill by diachronic collusion between (West) Germany and the major Allies (London Debts Agreement 1953 and the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990). Since then, the Federal Republic has insisted that all issues of war debts are "legally and politically settled". The article attempts to take a closer look at the validity of both German and Greek lines of argument, in particular dwelling on the special (i.e. no reparation) character of the Besatzungsanleihe (forced occupation loan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a long period of political uncertainty as well as economic and social decline, stable political relations returned to Serbia, the key country of the Western Balkans. The country's new strongman since the last elections in March 2014, Aleksandar Vucic, announced far-reaching reforms affecting the state and society. His government, equipped with a plush two-thirds majority in parliament, has every possibility to implement this promise. Though Vucic renewed his coalition with the old Socialist junior partners, he is not subject to pressure from them in the pursuit of his political goals. "There is no excuse now", was the overwhelming sentiment and conclusion in the local media on the inauguration ofVucic's cabinet. The only limits to the reformist potential concern the management expertise and a growing personality cult around Vucic. The damage that the Vucic cult did to state institutions was exposed almost immediately with his authoritarian stance during the record flooding that devastated Serbia in mid-May 2014. Then the Prime Minister delivered harsh lessons left and right to cabinet ministers and other officials, often during live broadcasts of emergency government meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the Hungarian system change in 1989. Contrasting the events with Poland, it seeks to find elements of the present political cleavages in a lack of symbolical power. Of equal importance is the fact that during the negotiations at the Round Table, the Hungarian communist party had already surrendered its power, so that the cleavages between the opposition parties already became visible. During the following elections, the voters experienced democracy as a power struggle among competing democratic parties, rather than as the downfall of communism. The leftist-liberal coalition in 1994 reshaped the political landscape and cemented the cleavages which haunt the Hungarian political system until the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parliamentary elections in Albania on 23 June 2013 ended with a landslide victory of the opposition coalition under the leadership of Edi Rama, the president of the Socialist Party - constituting a "referendum" given the ballot against a third government of Sail Berisha. The result came as a surprise to nearly everybody: Sail Berisha did not expect to loose the elections at all; Edi Rama did not expect to win so easily, and many international observers expected a rather close result. The article provides an analysis of the results and comes to the conclusion that the only difference to the previous Albanian elections lies in the number of votes between the two political blocks. While many observers do give the elections a positive assessment, the paper argues that the challenges of the "logic of clientelism" in Albania still prevail, also, in and after these elections. The crucial question whether the election results actually represent just another rotation of power or rather a "renaissance and a renewal" of politics in Albania - as promised by the opposition - can only be answered after the new government is given the chance to proof its willingness and capability to overcome a nearly systemic clientelism which is wide-spread in all spheres of public and private life. Edi Rama has shown in his first period as mayor of Tirana that he is capable of positive surprises, which should be considered as a chance and as a hope. However, despite all reasons for optimism, without strong international support the government will not be in the position to confront successfully the serious economic and social challenges prevailing in Albania. To open the EU accession process as soon as possible can serve as a path-maker for the new government and the urgently needed reforms in Albania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses the state of development of coming to terms with the Standard Albanian language in the states of Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia after the radical changes in the 1990s. It concludes that the approach to Standard Albanian shows two different ways of coming to terms with the past. The interface between both is the declaration of independence of Kosovo (2008). Three different strategies can be found when societies in Southeast Europe are dealing with their socialist pasts: those removing traces, those approaching scientifically, and those approaching nostalgically. Standard Albanian proves the rule in this respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism in Bulgaria has undergone intensive changes since its beginning in the late 19th century, but especially after the Second World War when it started to become a mass product for sunny beach tourism along the Black Sea coast. Since the early 1990s when Bulgarian tourism started to transform into a market oriented economy, the economic sector has changed again. Tourism suffered from out-dated, giant hotel complexes, ecological problems, inadequate quality of the hotels and gastronomy, and poor investments as well as crime. But it still remains to be a mass product spatially concentrated along the Black Sea coast and seasonally concentrated during the summer months. Nowadays it develops new types of tourism products like cultural tourism, ecotourism, spa tourism, sport tourism, congress tourism or rural tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until a few years ago, the success of right-wing populist movements still seemed to be a phenomenon specific to a few European countries. By now, it has spread over most of Europe. Eastern Europe's right-wing populism is a very special case: It combines nationalist, right-wing authoritarian and anti-elitist attitudes with a left-wing populist economic and social policy -- which frequently goes hand in hand with nostalgia for the communist social order -- and reveals a general frustration with the democratic system's unfulfilled promises. The article is about structural and programmatic features common to all right-wing parties, and reflects how this socio-political phenomenon should be dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new political party in Albania is presently attracting the attention in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. The Black-Red-Alliance (AK), named after the colours of the national Albanian flag, brings turmoil to the Albanian political landscape. The AK started its political life as a regular Albanian party in March 2012 by attacking all major politicians, as they failed in advancing Albania's EU-integration process. AK presents itself as the new hope for all Albanians wherever they may live and meets a positive reaction. Moreover, it is especially the nationalistic demand for the unification of Albania and Kosovo that causes further major discussions in the Albanian public opinion. Is AK a real nationalistic danger in the southern Balkans or simply a new Albanian party looking for its electorate? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the article lies on the reflection of gender concepts in Southeast Europe in view of their diachronic development from pre-modern to our times, posing the question: how did Europeanization, globalization as well as political and social changes in the region itself influence role concepts of both genders and their relation to each other. In the beginning, pre-modern patriarchal conceptions of masculinity and femininity are outlined which had developed and had been ruling in Southeast Europe during the Ottoman Empire. In the patriarchal society of the Balkans, with the dominating position of men and the subordinated position of women, we can speak of a clear gender order. After the Second World War, socialist rulers wanted to establish sexual equality. Women were granted access to education and employment. Their active role in the work process was, however, tied to the claim that they had to fulfill the reproductive role of a working-class mother at the same time. The double work burden of women was the consequence. Altogether traditional gender roles have hardly changed since this time. Presently hybrid, overlapping and often contradictory concepts of masculinity and femininity can be observed in Southeast Europe: they oscillate between global and local variants, mingled with gender values and a behaviour which very often follows traditional patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bulgaria, the state security files were opened 17 years after the collapse of communism. The political awareness of this topic has delayed Bulgaria's coming to terms with its communist past, as impartial debates were not possible during those years. The access granted to the files of the repressive apparatus though, has not yet fulfilled the expectations of the democratic community as far as the re-establishment of justice is concerned. The article explains how the entire transition period in Bulgaria was manipulated and affected by the late opening of the state security files and reflects the negative consequences on the Bulgarian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides insights regarding the negative reaction of Greece towards the 1991 Macedonian declaration of independence. The central question is how the Greek civil war (1946-1949) with its strong Macedonian dimension affected Greece's post-World War remembrance culture and history politics, and subsequently influenced perceptions and opinions regarding "the Macedonian Question". One of the main claims of the article is that in "national-minded", anti-communist Greece of 1950- 1974, the "traumatic" experience of civil war triggered the establishment of an official remembrance culture aiming to "produce" frenetic anti-communism, and a both proud and anti-Slavic Greek- Macedonian identity in Northern Greece. The latter was mainly accomplished by deeply rooting and emphasizing the memory of two "chosen glories" of Macedonian Hellenism: On the one hand, ancient Macedonia with its glorious king Alexander the Great, and on the other hand, the Greek anti-Slavic so-called "Macedonian Struggle" of 1904-1908. At the same time, anti-communism was brought forward by consistently reiterating the "treacherous" collaboration of the Greek communists with secessionist movements of Bulgarian and Macedonian affiliation during the occupation and civil war years. The article examines which aspects of this postwar remembrance culture endured the phase of transition and democratic consolidation after 1974, and which had to disappear in the face of political and historical "rehabilitation" of the Greek Communist Party. The article concludes that the public discourse in Greece during the early 1990s deliberately focused on ancient Macedonia and the "Slavic usurpation of a Greek cultural and historical heritage" in order to avoid the possible "uncontrolled explosion" of Greek civil war taboos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inclusion still is wishful thinking in East and Southeast Europe. Apart from official, but not sufficient basic social protection such as pensions and unemployment benefits the new economic systems of the transforming states cannot be considered as "social market economy" in terms of the German model. In countries like Romania up to 30 per cent of the population still live below or slightly above the poverty level, important social problems are still unsolved. Among these are the brain drain and the irrational ratio of profits, wages and prices, the high share of pensioners and early pensioners, an ailing and inefficient health system, poverty and prostitution as well as the distressing demographic development. Since 1990 there has been no real social policy existing in Romania. Socially disadvantaged groups have no lobby in politics, media, science and society. Romania's President Traian Basescu summoned experts in autumn 2009 to elaborate a "Social Report" that critically analyses the development since 1989. The article presents this Report as one of the most important political documents in post-revolutionary Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects one viewpoint in a discussion recently prevalent in Bulgaria which concerns places of remembrance in the national culture. As exemplified by the Batak scandal it analyses meanders of pre-modern and modern discourse devoted to the commemoration of a trauma. Based on two cultural sources, a well-known and officially approved painting by the Polish 19th century painter Antoni Piotrowski entitled "Slaughter in Batak" and his "Autobiography" currently published only in fragments, the author shows tensions between the intention of the painter and the social function of his artwork in the era when "little narratives" were legalised and changed their status into "great narratives". A special place in the analysis is taken by the issue of victimhood nationalism as a specific tool used by small nations in their political strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the recent parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are often referred to as a "right shift" - meaning the success of far right parties on the one hand or the success of center-right parties on the other. A differentiated analysis of "left" and "right" in Slovakia, distinguishing between an economic, value and nation-orientation level as well as cleavages not overlapping with the "left-right" continuum, shows a complicated pattern which does not allow for a one-dimensional evaluation of the results. ]he election in Slovakia in June 2010 marked a historical victory of a social democratic party, which however is relativized by its nationalist rhetoric in the past years as well as cooperation with nationalists and Vladimir Meciar in the past government. The losses of Meciar, nationalists, as well as the more radical of Hungarian parties seem to mark the end of "Meciarism" in Slovakia and a shift away from far right. A shift to the right on the economic level seems obvious, but the old Christian democrat parties in fact experienced losses or only minor gains. Two new parties on the other hand, a liberal one and a party seeking to overcome the ethnic cleavage in Slovakia, surprised with high gains. ]'he future of the new government remains unclear, as it has to face the financial crisis as well as the rising poll numbers of social democrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bilateral relations between Hungary and Slovakia had registered a sudden deterioration just a year before new parliaments were elected in both countries in April and June 2010. A restrictive legislation regulating the use of the state language in Slovakia and a new Hungarian law offering citizenship to Magyar minorities in the neighbouring countries led to a hitherto unseen escalation in a controversy between the two member states of the European Union. Nationalists on both sides succeeded in reducing the complexity of a neighbourhood in the very heart of Europe to simple ethno-political patterns. - The new government in Slovakia which got parliamentarian support in August 2010 tries to mitigate the conflict. The article resumes the development of the recent crisis and describes its historical background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]