Integrating the international pressures emanating from the Washington Consensus with an analysis of domestic interest representation, this book explores the political consequences of privatization and the progress of democracy in Eastern Europe. Chris Hasselmann investigates whether the issue of pension reform offers a natural controlled experiment with which to explore both issues throughout the region and the former Soviet Union. The volume will prove of value to those with an interest in public policy and governance issues, the politics of Eastern Europe and political theory more generally.
ÔLots has changed in Eastern Europe in the past quarter-century and the new edition of this major study of the region sets out these changes in directions for the better and for the worse.Õ Ð Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde, UK ÔThis Handbook offers a historically informed, systematic account of the political development in Central and Eastern Europe. Two chapters lay out a framework for comparison. 26 specialists provide analyses for 19 countries. In an appendix, each of these country chapters documents election results, government composition, the electoral system, and the constitutional framework. The concluding chapter synthesizes the major results. The Handbook is the most comprehensive source for an up-to-date analysis of all Central and Eastern European countries within the sphere of influence of the European Union. It is a Òmust haveÓ for students and scholars interested in how to evaluate the state of democracy in this region of the globe.Õ Ð Hans-Dieter Klingemann, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE and Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany This third edition of The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe provides an authoritative and thorough analysis of the political changes, which have occurred in Central and Eastern Europe since the demise of communism. It offers an historical, comparative perspective of the region and focuses on the social consequences of the democratisation process. The country-specific chapters are written by scholars with well-documented area expertise on their respective cases: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Each chapter includes detailed examinations of elections, the formation of governments, electoral systems and constitutional arrangements. These in-depth and up-to-date analyses are supplemented by conclusions on the party systems and emerging political structures in the region as a whole, as well as the consolidation of democracy in a post-communist setting. The revised and expanded version of The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe provides a state-of-the art companion, which will be indispensable for students and scholars in the social sciences including political science, comparative politics, European studies and political history, as well as for policy makers and practitioners.
The quest for freedom from hunger and repression has triggered in recent years a dramatic, worldwide reform of political and economic systems. Never have so many people enjoyed, or at least experimented with democratic institutions. However, many strategies for economic development in Eastern Europe and Latin America have failed with the result that entire economic systems on both continents are being transformed. This major book analyzes recent transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Drawing in a quite distinctive way on models derived from political philosophy, economics, and game theory, Professor Przeworski also considers specific data on individual countries. Among the questions raised by the book are: What should we expect from these experiments in democracy and market economy? What new economic systems will emerge? Will these transitions result in new democracies or old dictatorships?
What is the relationship between democracy and political culture in countries undergoing major systemic change? Have subjective political orientations of citizens been important in shaping the development of democracy in central and eastern Europe after the fall of communism? These core questions are tackled by an impressive range of twenty political scientists, sixteen of which are based in the central and eastern European countries covered in this essential new book. Their analyses draw on a unique set of data collected and processed by the contributors to this volume within the framework of the World Values Survey project. This data enables these authors to establish similarities and differences in support of democracy between a large number of countries with different cultural and structural conditions as well as historical legacies. The macro-level findings of the book tend to support the proposition that support of democracy declines the further east one goes. In contrast, micro-level relationships have been found to be astonishingly similar. For example, support of democracy is always positively related to higher levels of education – no matter where an individual citizen happens to live. This new book builds a clear understanding of what makes democracies strong and resistant to autocratic temptation.
This title was first published in 2000: This research examines the socio-economic and cultural factors that influence the development of democracy, and also explores how new democracies can be maintained and consolidated. It investigates the consolidation of new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, which face the hurdle of transforming their economies. The study looks at the effect of economic factors on popular support for democracy and discusses what factors influence citizen commitment to democratic regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. It argues that citizen perception of well-being is an important element in influencing political support. Case studies cover developing democracies in Europe, such as the Czech Republic or Slovakia, and policy implications, specifically in terms of economic policy, are offered that may aid democracies in their consolidation.
Branding Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe is a study of the uses of systemic propaganda in U.S. foreign policy. Moving beyond traditional understandings of propaganda, Branding Democracy analyzes the expanding and ubiquitous uses of domestic public persuasion under a neoliberal regime and an informational mode of development and its migration to the arena of foreign policy. A highly mobile and flexible corporate-dominated new informational economy is the foundation of intensified Western marketing and promotional culture across spatial and temporal divides, enabling transnational interests to integrate territories previously beyond their reach. U.S. «democracy promotion» and interventions in the Eastern European «color revolutions» in the early twenty-first century serve as studies of neoliberal state interests in action. Branding Democracy will be of interest to students of U.S. and European politics, political economy, foreign policy, political communication, American studies, and culture studies.
Summary: "How does democracy work in the new democracies of Eastern Europe? Do the people actually rule as one would expect in a democracy or do the legacies of communism and the constraints of the transition weaken popular control? This book presents a new framework for conceptualizing and measuring democratic quality and applies this framework to multiple countries and policy areas in the region. It defines democratic quality as the degree to which citizens are able to hold leaders accountable for their performance and keep policy close to their preferences. Its surprising conclusion, drawn from large-N statistical analyses and small-N case studies, is that citizens exercise considerable control over their rulers in Eastern European democracies. Despite facing difficult economic circumstances and an unfavorable inheritance from communism, these countries rapidly constructed relatively high-quality democracies"--Provided by publisher.
This study analyzes the mutual relationships between politics and the economy. Focusing on the experiences of Southern and Eastern Europe, it examines the complex interdependence between democracies, economic growth, social redistribution, and political culture.
