Web: 5-republic.eu

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State building presupposes that society has a picture of the past, present and, in general terms, the future. Agreement on the origins of the state organization and understanding of its current state are the basis for further development. For example, any Frenchman can quite confidently describe the features of the "Second Empire" or "Third Republic" and knows that today's France is the "Fifth Republic".

The temptation is great to leave the question of the development of the Belarusian state in the zone of professional debates of historians. Unfortunately, historical science in Belarus has long been and still is largely under serious ideological oppression. In academic circles, there is no certainty about the periodization of the history of our state. There is no understanding of the historicity of the state structure in the mass consciousness. It seems that for the majority, the Second World (Great Patriotic) War and the “first president” remain the two main points of support.

Ordering the change of political regimes shows the variability of historical processes and allows you to clearly see and analyze their differences.

If we consider only those periods when Belarus existed as an independent state (a state in the modern sense, which excludes the period of ancient principalities and empires), and also take into account the difference in the mechanism for exercising state power, we will see the following:

First Republic - an attempt to create the BPR (March 9, 1918)

The second republic is a parliamentary republic, the central body was the Supreme Council, acted on the basis of the Constitution of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic of 1978 with amendments based on the Declaration of the Supreme Council "On the State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic" dated July 27, 1990 (August 25, 1991 - March 30, 1994)

The Third Republic is a mixed republic, the central bodies are the Supreme Council, the President (March 30, 1994 - November 24, 1996)

The Fourth Republic is an illegal form of a super-presidential republic (November 24, 1996 - present)

Thus, the Fifth Republic is ahead of us. How do we see her?

We will talk about this within the framework of the discussion and analytical project "The Fifth Republic"*.

Within three months (October-December 2022), expert discussions, discussions and interviews will be held as part of the project, and analytical materials will be created to identify the positions of Belarusian political actors on various issues: the political model, the procedure for preparing a new constitution and its content, key reforms, principles of social organization, etc.

In order to have a chance to build a new Belarus in the future, it is necessary to consolidate and structure the Belarusian political field right now. Under the current conditions, only the Belarusian diaspora can be a space for these processes. Despite the fact that attempts at such structuring and consolidation are being made, most efforts are still focused on current tasks: maintaining interest in the Belarusian agenda, issues of legalizing Belarusians abroad, lobbying for sanctions against the regime, etc.

For various reasons, there is no significant intellectual work aimed at comprehending the long-term goals and objectives of the upcoming post-Lukashenko period. At the same time, it is highly likely that the transit of power will be unpredictable and provoke social unrest.

In order to minimize the undesirable consequences of these uncontrolled processes, the democratic forces already now need to openly and comprehensively discuss the issues of organizing the transition period and carrying out reforms in the new Belarus.

All this will make it possible to draw up a "map of political positions" of the Belarusian political space and stimulate further discussions of politicians on controversial issues.

*An alternative periodization of the stages of development of Belarusian republicanism was undertaken as part of the analytical project " The Fourth Republic " in 2021.