Консолідація демократії як завершальна стадія транзиту в Словацькій Республіці

Abstract

Klyuchkovych Anatoliy. The consolidation of democracy as the final stage of transit in the Slovak Republic. Slovakia’s transition to a consolidated democracy was successfully completed, but its transit trajectory was more complicated than in other countries of Central Europe. The purpose of the article is to analyze the process of consolidation of democracy in the Slovak Republic, its main levels and factors that influenced on completion of democratic transit at the end of 1990s – at the beginning of 2000s. In the Slovak Republic the dynamics of the transformation processes demonstrated the interdependence of the influence of procedural factors and the structural context. The factors contributing to democratic consolidation in Slovakia have been singled out: the democratic consensus of political elites, the activities of the «third» sector, the influence of the international community. Through the prism of conceptual approaches of K. v. Beyme, W. Merkel, G. Pridham, the structural levels and phases of the consolidation of democracy in Slovakia are analyzed. The successes and difficulties of democratic development of Slovakia at the level of constitutional consolidation, consolidation of the party system, behavioural consolidation of informal actors, consolidation of civil society and civic political culture are revealed. Slovakia has completed the democratic transit and has reached a stage of «negative» consolidation. The result of democratic transformations in Slovakia is the consolidation of the democratic regime through the constitutionalization and stabilization of the state power system, the institutionalization of democratic rules of political competition, the initial consolidation of the party system and the development of civil society. The stage of «positive» consolidation of the democratic regime in Slovakia remains open. It provides improving the mechanisms of interaction between civil society and state power, consolidating the civic political culture in society.