Compare and Contrast
Early Modern Europe and
Modern Eastern Europe
November 26, 2012
In
this essay I will compare and contrast the criticisms of monarchy
government as it was practiced in Early Modern Europe from Voltaire’s book with
Drakulic’s criticisms of the governments of Modern Eastern Europe. There are
many similarity and difference between the government in Early Modern Europe
and Modern Eastern Europe.
The
first similarity between the government of Early Modern Europe and Modern
Eastern Europe is that the government has a lot of power. In the book Café
Europa by Drakulic, she showed that the government of Croatia or other Eastern
European country are still used to the communism government so they act like
they are communist government and do whatever they want. For instance, the
Croatian government prohibits people from bringing too much money outside of
the country or prohibits people from taking too much good into the country. And
this show their dictatorship since most of the people wanted to bring goods
into the country, and take a lot of money outside the country. So this is not
really democracy if the government is not doing what the most of the people
wanted. And they are not listening to the people. Instead the government does
whatever they want and make up their rule. In the book Café Europe, Drakulic
wrote “ ….Croatian citizen may bring in $100 worth of goods, the same limit
that applied to former Yugoslavia. And if you this regard this rule and got
caught. You have to pay over 30 per cent in duty[1].” So,
this former communist country, Croatia, make up this rule that citizen can only
bring in $100 worth of good. We can see that this rule is not popular and make
no sense, because most of the stuff in Croatia cost higher than other Western
Europe country. People from Croatia mostly buy stuff at cheaper price from
Western European country and bring it back home. This rule was made to keep the
money inside Croatia, however, reading from Café Europa we can clearly see that
most of the people don’t like this rule but they can’t do much about it because
the government have too much authority just like the government that Voltaire
criticize in his book, Candide. In the book Candide by Voltaire, the Dutch
judge made Candide pay ridiculous fees, “The judge began by fining him ten
thousand piasters for the noise he had made. Then he listened patiently,
promised to investigate hos case as soon as the captain returned, and charged
him another ten thousand piasters for the expense of hearing[2].”
Candide was made to paid high fees just to get the judge to listen to his case,
and then later in the book we see that the judge did not help him with his
case. The same thing happen to the citizen of Croatia citizen that bring in
goods more than $100, they have to pay 30 per cent duty. We can see the
absolute power of both of the government being criticize in these two books.
For the government in these two books they must thing that they have the right
to make people paid high fees because if the people are rich enough to buy more
than $100 worth of good then they must be rich enough to pay for the fees. Same
thing with Candide, the Dutch judge think that if he is rich enough to pay ten
thousand piasters for the noise he made, Candide must be rich enough to pay
another ten thousand piasters for the fees of listening. Then these governments
use their power to force people to pay. This shows us the similarity of the
absolute power that these government has.
This
brings us to the next topic of the government system that is very similar both
practiced in Early Modern Europe and Modern Eastern Europe. There must be the
reasons for the absolute power that these governments hold. And one of those
reasons is that people are not involved in the politic, people are not doing
anything about the government. In Early Modern Europe, of course people are not
involved in politics because they can’t and for them it is harder to voice
their opinion unlike the democracy system of the Modern Eastern Europe. But
there is problem with the citizen of former Communist country not participating
in politics. Drakulic give reason that
the people are used to the old system of communist government. They are new to
democracy and don’t know how to use their right and don’t know the power that
they have. When the trees in Public Park were being cut down people just stand
there and watch it happen. As Drakulic describe in her book “They stood passive
and immobile, almost like trees themselves. Or like future victim. Why did they
do nothing[3]?” So,
why did they do nothing? It is because that they don’t know the power that they
have. They don’t know that democracy is not the same like the old communist
government that they have been living in for decades. “We could not do anything[4]” this
is one of the reasons they give for not doing anything while the trees are
being cut down. People of the formal communist country did not understand that
to make democracy work they actually have to do something and participate in
the politic. Many still don’t believe that change is possible or that they have
power as Drakulic said “We still have a one-party government, corruption,
injustice, poverty and ladder-climbing, very much as we did before.[5]” This
is the excuse that Drakulic try to give to her husband for not standing up to
the border police and rejected all those ridiculous border custom rules. She
feels like she is just a person and has no power to do anything against the
mighty powerful government, so she rather not voices her opinion or participate
in the politic.
Now,
I will talk about the differences between the governments of Early Modern Europe
and the Modern Eastern Europe. The difference that we can clearly see is that
the role that the church has in government. In Early Modern Europe the church
has important role in the government, and the church has many powers. In the
monarch system the next most powerful people after the king are the noble and
the church. In the book Candide, Voltaire often criticizes the church because
of the power that they have and how the church exercise those power. However,
in the book Café Europe, Drakulic didn’t even criticize the church. This is
because in Modern Eastern Europe countries the church has no influence in the
government and the church also has no power in people life. In Candide, the
Father of the Jesuit is the ruler of Paraguay, the inquisitor in Lisbon has the
power to kill people or do auto de fay. The church is very involved in the
government in Early Modern Europe; the church also has a lot of power. This is
the reason why the church is being criticize because they abuse their power and
become to involve in worldly riches instead of spiritual life.
Another
obvious difference of the government is that the Early Modern Europe
governments are monarch but the Modern Eastern Europe is democracy. Although
they both has total authority and they both are riches while the people are
poor. But the structure of the government is different, and democracy is the
opposite of monarchy. Although, the democracy government of formal communist
country in Eastern Europe seem pretty bad, but I think they are at least better
than the monarchy government.
There
are many similarity and differences of the monarchy government that Voltaire
criticize in his book Candide and the democracy government that Drakulic
described in her book, Café Europa. Both show that the government system they
under is not working and they are failing. Both Drakulic and Voltaire feel like
the people life under these governments are unhappy. We can see that if
democracy or monarchy is not practice wisely it will bring problem and sadness.
But both Voltaire and Drakulic also portray a better government, the system
that they desire for, the system that they think will bring happiness to
people. For Voltaire that government is the monarchy in the city of El Dorado
under a good king; and for Drakulic that system is the democracy practice
wisely as in the Western European countries and the USA.
[1]
Café Europa, Slavenka Drakulic, p.111
[2]
Candide, Voltaire p.75
[3]
Café Europa, Slavenka Drakulic, p.94
[4]
Café Europa, Slavenka Drakulic, p.98
[5]
Café Europa, Slavenka Drakulic, p.117
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