Nežná revolúcia a model centra a periférie: prípad Južných Čiech Prečítať

THE VELVET REVOLUTION AND THE CENTRE/PERIPHERY MODEL: THE CASE OF SOUTH BOHEMIA BOHEMIA

Marián Sekerák

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Politické vedy, Volume 21, Number 4/2018, pages 8-29

DOI: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2018.21.4.8-29 

Recommended form for quotation of the article / Odporúčaná forma citácie článku:

SEKERÁK, M. 2018. The Velvet Revolution and the Centre/Periphery Model: The Case of South Bohemia. In Politické vedy. [online]. Vol. 21, No. 4, 2018. ISSN 1335–2741, pp. 8-29. Available at: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2018.21.4.8-29 

ABSTRACT

Studying local history is an important tool for understanding historical processes at national level. This paper focuses on the events related to the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, with special emphasis on its regional actors on the territory of today’s Czech Republic. Due to studying archive sources and secondary literature the paper examines the measure, motivation and circumstances of peoples’ political engagement around 17thNovember 1989 in the South Bohemian Region. The paper is set within the context of Lipset and Rokkan’s centre/peripherymodel and explains the course, speed, dynamics, and intensity of revolutionary events. It concludes that the South Bohemian economic infrastructure was not a hindrance of spilling-over the revolutionary processes and building of local Civic Forum branches. Even the transfer of power among old and new elites was relatively smooth. The cultural or political differences did not turn out to be so significant in comparison with the Prague centre. In this way, the mosaic of the political transformation’s development and democratic transition in Central Europe is complemented by its small but not insignificant component.

Keywords: Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia, centre/periphery, Communism, South Bohemia