Od polyarchií k autokraciím: Studium režimních transformací a jeho reflexe

Abstract

This essay addresses several pertinent issues of interpretations of processes of autocratization pertaining to two different historical contexts. The authors seek to identify major arguments concerning theoretical backgrounds in the current agendas of research into the transitions from the polyarchic republican city-states to the authoritarian regimes of personal power in the Renaissance Italy and into the contemporary processes of autocratic reversals. The authors strive to show that it is useful to pay thorough attention to varying theoretical challenges characterizing agendas of research into historically diverse regime transitions. In such a way, it is possible to expose and assess limits and directionality of prevailing research programs. This seems important in order to gain new incentives for an advancement of thinking about both contemporary and historical processes of autocratization and to enhance a promising cross-fertilization of the study of regime changes conducted by political science, historical sociology and historiography.