Search

The practice of using force and law structures in the implementation of repression and terror and the experience of preventing these types of armed violence in different political systems of today are analyzed. The categories “power structures”, “armed violence”, “repression and terror” were defined. It is revealed that in today's essential understanding repression and terror were first used as one of the force tools for stabilizing socio-political processes within the revolutions of the mid-seventeenth - early twentieth centuries and a series of post-revolutionary civil wars and coups d'etat. It is stated that upon completion of the processes of the modern world system formation, which according to I. Wallerstein operates on the basis of market mechanisms, provides for the presence of central, semi-peripheral and peripheral zones with fundamentally different economic potential. The possibility of using repression and terror became directly dependent on the political structure existing in a given country. It is noted that in the liberal-democratic political systems typical of the center of today's world economy, repression and terror as elements of power are completely absent, as it prevents the security forces from entering the political process and public control over their activities. Under the semi-peripheral totalitarian system, the analyzed types of armed violence are an integral part of the state functioning and are used in all social spheres. In authoritarian political systems, typical for the semi-periphery and the periphery, terror is not used, and repression is not the main instrument of domination which is used exactly for political purposes. The structure of the clan-oligarchic system, widespread in the semi-peripheral zone, creates potential opportunities for repression. However, their widespread usage is blocked by elements of facade democracy, which are exploited by economic and political groups in competition with the central government.

The Idea of Nationality and Democracy in Mieczysław Szerer’s Writings This article analyses political thought of Mieczysław Szerer (1884‑1981), one of the few emitent followers of liberal democracy during interwar period in Poland. Szerer was clever analyst of idea of nationality. In his opinion democracy as a political system has been embeded in nationality as concept, which guarantee social cohesion. However nationality being fundamental concept of modernity have its dark side, as a Skurce of conflicts. In this situation international federation of democratic nations is only remedy to negative effects of democracy. Szerer was also fervent critic of interwar dictatorships, he analysed it as unstable and uneffective political systems. He percived modern society as unstable in deeper meaning, oscilating from democracy to dictatorship. He criticized J.S. Mill’s idea of democracy trough education, maintaining that the deepest source of unstability of modern political systems is contradiction between political equality and economical inequality. Szerer’s political thought is analysed in contecst of his Jewish origin. Although he was manifesty Polish, his identity was in suspicion, this was a silent problem of Szerer’s thought.