ABSTRACT
But political scientists would like to ask if history is really a destiny, a fate?! The author of this paper has some doubts about these very long shadows of
history. History in his opinion is better understood as a sequence of alternatives. Every new generation has the chance to decide by itself which one of the respective alternatives it would like to prefer and then act in this direction
more or less successfully. Structures and structural legacies matter, but which one matters depends on decisions of the acting generation.
