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Political Marxism on two conceptions of democracy
Brabec, Martin
The article presents an analysis of democracy from the point of view of Political Marxism. Political Marxism is new stream in contemporary Marxism, which is based on the works of American historian Robert Brenner and the Canadian political scientist Ellen Wood. She distinguishes between two conceptions of democracy. The ancient concept of democracy grew out of a historical experience which had conferred a unique civic status on subordinate classes, creating in particular that unprecedented formation, the peasant citizen. Our contemporary concept of democracy, originating not in Athenian democracy but in European feudalism and culminating in liberal capitalism, with the major milestones, like Magna Carta and 1688, marks the ascent of the propertied classes. In this case, it is not a question of peasants liberating themselves from the political domination of their overlords but lords themselves asserting their independent powers against the claims of monarchy.
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Tension between Capitalism and Democracy
Brabec, Martin
In my article I focus on features producing tension betwen democracy and capitalism. First, I show contradictions betwen personal and private rights and present the ways in which these contradictions have been eliminated during history. Next, I focus on how in capitalism powers relations penetrate various social spheres and squeeze democratic decision. Consequently, in capitalism there arise areas where power is not accountable and the voice of the people is silent in spite of the fact that decisions concerning the people are made there.
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Social capital and legitimacy of democracy in Czech Republic
Šafr, Jiří ; Sedláčková, Markéta
The paper treats the relation between legitimacy of democracy and social capital. Analysis of the ISSP 2004 survey shows that in the Czech Republic the affective legitimacy of democracy is primarily influenced by political culture in its vertical dimension and trust in institutions. As for the horizontal dimension of political culture we can find only impact of cultural part of social capital, tolerance and social trust, whereas the civic participation has no effect to attitudes to democracy.
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