Massive student protests in South Africa in the past few years, largest since the times of the anti-apartheid struggles, raised several questions for political scientists. Are we witnessing a generational change? Or are they a sign of a broader global shift towards “assertive citizenship” present in advanced democracies and democratizing countries? To answer these questions, this paper examines the levels of political support and nature of political participation among the young generation.
The paper also points out that generational change is not immediately visible in public opinion polls but is a process of a gradual narrative construction. Protests brought with them a challenge to the founding narrative of a united Rainbow Nation and reconciliation with the past, leading to a fracture in democratic stability. For the democratic project to succeed, it is essential that the national project in South Africa does not fall apart.

Europeanization acted at all stages of society development in Slovakia, with varying degrees of intensity and in various forms, since the signing of the association agreement with the European Union. A significant impact was already in the stage of transition, when the consistent implementation of the Copenhagen criteria insist by the EC/EU help to return to the path of democratic development in Slovakia. However, it wasn’t just about the application of the generally accepted principles of parliamentary democracy, but also on the active impact of the EC/EU institutions within the existing opportunities provided by the signing of the Association Agreement. A qualitatively new stage began after completion of the Copenhagen criteria and the opening of negotiations, which was to implement acquis communautaire into the internal legal order of the country. At this stage, clearly dominated the process of Europeanization “top-down”, i.e. the adoption of standards, laws of the European Union, to make country compatible with other countries of the EU. After the entry of the Slovakia into the EU, a two-sided process of Europeanization: “up-down” and “bottom-up” has started.

The aim of this article is to present the dependence path and the number of factors which influenced its shape in the process of achieving transitional justice on the post-Soviet area. In comparative studies carried out in Estonia, Georgia and Poland, it has been demonstrated that there were a number of factors that diversified the process of transformation from the authoritarian to democratic system. The need to settle accounts with the Soviet authoritarian regime was diverse and depended on historical and geopolitical conditions, as well as on the political system which was adopted by individual states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has been observed that in Georgia the process of achieving transitional justice was not initiated but replaced, after consolidating the democratic system, by the process of achieving historical justice; however, in Estonia and in Poland, the problem of settling accounts with the outgoing authoritarian regime constituted one of the key issues of the transformation.