Bøger af Maximilian Spinner

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject History of Europe - Ages of World Wars, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Soviet Social and Economic History, language: English, abstract: This essay outlines the development of Stalin's policies on Soviet ethnic and national groups. Based on selected writings by Stalin and other original sources it shows when, how and why his approach to the national question changed over time.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: B+, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), course: Russian Politics, language: English, abstract: This essay investigates the development of a specific identity of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg).

Master's Thesis from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - Region: Eastern Europe, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: East European Politics, language: English, abstract: The reformulation of the national interest in Hungarian foreign politics in the mid- and late 1980s paved the way for a domestic reform process which lead to the peaceful transition to democracy. Hungary's democratisation cannot be understood without a reference to the preceding reformulation of its foreign policy, e.g. with regard to its neighbour Romania with a large Hungarian minority. In the economic domain this process meant an opening up for Western influence and an increasing losening of Hungary's integration with COMECON and the Soviet bloc. Contemporary sources from Hungary, the Soviet Union and the West are extensively used to substantiate the findings.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: A, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), course: Civil War and Ethnic Conflict, language: English, abstract: This text discusses some of the reasons for ethnic conflicts in Post-Soviet Moldova and compares the unsolved case of Transnistria with the case of the rather unknown Gagauzia which equally aimed for secession from Moldova.

Document from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: A, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), course: The New Political Economy of Development, language: English, abstract: Oil seems to prevent the development of democracy and a free market economy. Oilrich countries as diverse as Nigeria, Saudi-Arabia, Irak, Iran, Venezuela or Azerbaijan appear to be among the least democratic countries with highly closed economies and little signs of change in their course. This assumption can be confirmed by the empirical correlation between low indices in democratic rule and in the openness of the economy, and the endowment with natural resources. Intuitively everybody could explain that in each of these countries a narrow elite can keep up this state due to almost unlimited and unconditional cash inflows compensating for ineffective economic structures and buying off the population with populist policies in subsidizing consumption or low taxation.In his book Economic Development and Political Reform ¿ The Impact of External Capital on the Middle East Bradley Louis Glasser puts the development of Middle Eastern states with different degrees of resource endowment into a broader perspective. Economic liberalization and democratization are explained in the context of external capital contributing to both economic development theories and transitology.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - Region: Eastern Europe, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate East European Politics, language: English, abstract: This essay discusses how the question of national minorities outside Hungary shaped Hungarian politics in the post-transition period.

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate Russian and East European Studies, language: English, abstract: This essay compares the development of different understandings of nationalism in Western and Eastern Europe comparing the concepts of civic and ethnic nationalism.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject History of Germany - National Socialism, World War II, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate Soviet and Russian Social and Economic History, language: English, abstract: This essay discusses Stalin's domestic policies during World War II and whether they contributed to or impeded Soviet victory in the war.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: A, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), course: EU research, language: English, abstract: This essay looks into the EU's approach to bilateral bargaining with a case study on the agreement with Russia on transit to its enclave Kaliningrad.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject History of Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: A, Central European University Budapest (Departmemt of Political Science), course: Political Change, language: English, abstract: This essay compares the revolutionary character of two anti-Stalinist uprisings in the communist bloc. Based on different social theories of revolution it closely compares the cases Berlin 1953 and Budapest 1956 - the former being a worker's rising, the latter a broader national, anti-Soviet revolution.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject History of Europe - Newer History, European Unification, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate Soviet Social and Economic History, language: English, abstract: The collapse of the Soviet Union has been one of the most controversially discussed issuesamong historians and social scientists throughout the last decade. Paradoxically the imminentcollapse of communism had been predicted frequently by Western observers during the earlyyears of the Bolshevik rule. With the victory of the Second World War those voices weremuted and the West accomodated with the existence of an obviously stable, mighty andeconomically expanding country.1 The breakdown of communism in 1991 had beenanticipated by few contemporary scholars, although the majority were aware of the symptomsof a deep crisis.In this essay I will argue that in order to better understand the collapse of communismin the Soviet Union, a central role must be given to the economy and its effects on other areas.Most symptoms of the crisis and the ultimate breakdown of the system can in fact beattributed to the impact of economic failure. Whereas, economic modernization was the motorof success in the early decades, the economy became the weakest link of the Soviet system inthe later period as its structural shortcomings deeply effected other areas as well.The first part of this essay is intended to briefly outline the central role the economyplayed in the development of Soviet socialism. The second part analyses the far-reachingimpact of the economic downturn, while the third part discusses the limits of reform beforedrawing a conclusion.21 M Cox, ¿Critical Reflections on Soviet Studies¿, in: M Cox (ed.), Rethinking the Soviet Collapse, L: Pinter,1998, p 27.2 The author is aware that in the given scope of this essay only a minor and not necessarily representatitvefraction of the debates and works on the collapes of Soviet Communism can be touched on.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Eastern Europe, grade: A-, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), language: English, abstract: This text compares adaptation strategies of traditional Agrarian Parties in Scandinavia with modern or revived Agrarian Parties in contemporary Poland and Hungary.