O ZRÓŻNICOWANIU I DYNAMICE USTROJÓW

Abstract

The essay focuses on the diversity o f political systems, or national systems and their institutions, and identifies four dimensions that characterise that diversity. They are: the scope of the state’s power over an individual, the mechanism of replacing persons holding power, the functioning of the rule o f law, and the level o f law enforcement. The main relationships among them have been discussed and subsequently used to describe the main types of political systems of today’s world: socialism, non-democratic capitalism and democratic capitalism. The second part of the essay is a brief account of thirteen major political transformations known in contemporary history. They include the transition to liberal capitalism, democratisation of the previously introduced capitalism, introduction of socialism, dynamics of socialism, Asian post-socialist transformation, or institutional changes in the former Soviet block. Finally, reasons for limited predictability of the dynamics o f institutional systems are discussed and the internal as well as external forces shaping that dynamics are presented. A differentiation is made between external and internal forces on the one hand and tendencies and shocks on the other. Selected interactions among those forces are also analysed.