Bernhard H. Bayerlein

Duverger's concept: Semi–presidential government revisited

The article attempts to follow up the fate of the concept Maurice Duverger created to explain the regime of the French Fifth Republic: semi-presidential government. Duverger expounded the concept in his fundamental book Echec au roi in 1978, trying to illustrate the fact that regimes of this type worked quite differently in the seven Western and Northern European countries that institutionalized it. ‘Semi-presidentialism’ is now widely, but very often controversially, used. The recent appearance of such regimes in newly democratizing states points to the fact that this form of government is often the preferred solution in times of transition. A critical review of Duvergers concept seems expedient as the diversification of these regimes raises new and perhaps intriguing questions. Due to the rejection of Duvergers concept or its ignorance in parts of the European scientific community, it is necessary to defend it as an important tool for political analysis. Moreover, it opens the opportunity for the examination of fundamental problems in political science.

Transnational and Global Perspectives on International Communist Solidarity Organisations

This book provides an analysis of the articulation and organisation of radical international solidarity by so-called “Non-Party Mass Organisations” and “Sympathising Organisations for Special Purposes” that were either connected to or had been established by the Third or Communist International (Comintern), such as the International Red Aid, the International Workers’ Relief, the League Against Imperialism, the International of Seamen and Harbour Workers and the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers.2 The guiding light of these organisations was a radical interpretation of international solidarity, usually in combination with concepts and visions of gender, race and class as well as anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and anti-fascism. All of these new new transnational networks form a controversial part of the contemporary history of international organisations. In most cases, these organisations have been completely excluded from more recent research

Deutschland, Russland, Komintern : Teil 1. Überblicke, Analysen, Diskussionen : Neue Perspektiven auf die Geschichte der KPD und die deutsch-russischen Beziehungen (1918–1943)

Dank der Archivrevolution erscheinen die schillernden Beziehungen von Komintern, sowjetischer Fuhrung und KPD in neuem Licht. In den ausfuhrlichen Analysen und Uberblicken von B. H. Bayerlein, J. Drabkin und H. Weber werden diese vor dem Hintergrund der gleichzeitig erscheinenden Quellenedition kontextualisiert. Das aus der Deutsch-Russischen Geschichtskommission hervorgegangene Projekt leistet damit einen wertvollen Beitrag, den deutschen Kommunismus und das deutsch-sowjetische Verhaltnis systematisch und transnational zu beleuchten.