| Abstrakt: |
This article focuses on the March 1993 issue of the journal "Criminal Justice Review." As virtually every informed citizen knows, the year 1989 saw incredible changes in European systems of law and government. The Berlin Wall collapsed and East and West German unification was no longer the subject of purely hypothetical conjecture. Democratic reforms have been initiated in Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and regional affiliations and the role of the Communist Party have been called into question in the Soviet Union. These dramatic changes appear to have taken both diplomats and scholars by surprise, and they surely have no precedent in 20th-century politics and foreign affairs. Although current Congressional attention to these changes has focused on issues of economics and trade, there is no doubt that policymakers and scholars will be asked to confront other issues as the Cold War subsides and new foreign policy challenges emerge. In this context, it is critical that we have a better appreciation of the governmental, legal, and political systems of the distant past, the immediate past, and the present. Such knowledge may not be sufficient for appropriate and informed responses, but it is surely necessary. The final article in this special issue focuses on cross-national crime patterns. |
