Państwa Grupy Wyszehradzkiej: pomiędzy przeszłością a teraźniejszością : wybrane aspekty polityki wewnętrznej i zagranicznej

The book is an attempt to systematize the understanding of processes, which have been occurring in the past decades in four Central European states – Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. The monograph has been divided into four chapters, encompassing selected issues related to the functioning of political systems of Visegrad Group states from the onset of political, economical and social transformations, which transpired after 1989. Chapter one examines theoretical, historical, and methodological problems related to circumstances of transformation processes in the selected Central European states and their further evolution. It also indicates at common and distinctive characteristics of Central European states, taking into account political-scientific and historical perspectives. The second chapter is devoted to the issue of the functioning of government entities within governmental systems of selected states. The political analysis has been divided into periods of functioning as socialist and democratic states. The next chapter indicates the changes that occurred on political scenes of the designated states in the period from before the democratic transformation until the present day. The analysis is conducted through the prism of maturing of political parties and their influence on public affairs. The fourth chapter analyzes the issues of foreign policy of Central European states, describing the creation of the Visegrad Triangle (and later – the Visegrad Group) as a forum of political and economical cooperation of three (and later – four) states in the context of integration with NATO and European Communities (and later – European Union). This publication exhibits Central Europe in terms of political science, regime, and history. The comparative property of the book, resulting from such perspective, can constitute a source for a general European analysis, as well as a more detailed case study of each of the four states described herein.