Anton Pelinka, Die unheilige Allianz – die rechten und die linken Extremisten gegen Europa. Boehlau, Vienna 2015, 190 pages
This book is based on empirical observations – and on analyses using the main instruments of Political Science. The observations: Far right and far left parties (defined according their positions in the European party systems, especially in the European Parliament) have blocked successfully the deepening of European integration. One example has been the defeat in the French National Assembly in 1954, when French communists and French nationalists together prevented the ratification of the European Defence Community; or in 2005, when far left and far right voters joined ranks to defeat the European Constitutional Treaty in France and in the Netherlands. The book provides explanations for this “unholy alliance” – like the principal opposition of both variations of extremism against the openness of liberal democracy and the tendency to define politics not as a conflict between interests but as a battle between good end evil.
Anton Pelinka, Israel – Ausnahme- oder Normalstaat. Braumueller, Vienna 2015, 254 pages.
The book describes Israel in an essayistic way as a state in the Middle East which – according to all indicators Comparative Politics is using – would be the number one democracy in that region: not perfect, but definitely more democratic than all other states in that region. Israel, the product of European anti-Semitism, is victim of a double standard which tends to de-legitimize Israel while closing the eyes to the principal neglect of basic human rights in the states surrounding Israel. The book tries to explain this double standard as the result of traditional anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism; of the love the European left was willing to give to a perfect, socialist Israel – a love, now disappointed by the not so perfect not so socialist Jewish state; and of the role Israel plays as the common denominator for all diverse and conflicting interests among the Muslim states in that region.
Michael L. Miller : Moravští Židé v době emancipace
