Democracy and Democratization
Democracy and Democratization

Author: John D Nagle

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 1999-05-26

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0857026232

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This wide-ranging overview of the processes of democratization in post-Communist Europe, places the transitions in East-Central Europe within a broad European and global context. The authors begin with a introduction to the concept and theories of democracy and then examine the emerging politics of the new democracies to set the post-Communist transitions in longer-term comparative perspective with earlier and existing processes of democratization in Southern Europe, Latin America, and East and Southeast Asia. Finally the politics of EU accession are introduced to place the transitions within the wider context of European integration. Concluding with a summary of recent critiques of modern democracy and looking toward future theories, this text provides a comprehensive introduction to what will remain the key contemporary issue for all students of political science.

Post-Communist Party Systems
Post-Communist Party Systems

Author: Herbert Kitschelt

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1999-08-13

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9780521658904

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Examines democratic party competition in four post-communist polities in the 1990s. The work illustrates developments regarding different voter appeal of parties, patterns of voter representation, and dispositions to join other parties in alliances. Wider groups of countries are also compared.

Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-communist Europe
Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-communist Europe

Author: Ivana Marková

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 9780191734922

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A collection of essays concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-communist Europe which show that, while political and economic changes can have rapid effects, cultural and psychological changes may linger and influence political trust and representations of democracy.

The Defeat of Solidarity
The Defeat of Solidarity

Author: David Ost

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-07-05

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1501729276

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How did the fall of communism and the subsequent transition to capitalism in Eastern Europe affect the people who experienced it? And how did their anger affect the quality of the democratic systems that have emerged? Poland offers a particularly provocative case, for it was here where workers most famously seemed to have won, thanks to the role of the Solidarity trade union. And yet, within a few short years, they had clearly lost. An oppressive communist regime gave way to a capitalist society that embraced economic and political inequality, leaving many workers frustrated and angry. Their leaders first ignored them, then began to fear them, and finally tried to marginalize them. In turn, workers rejected their liberal leaders, opening the way for right-wing nationalists to take control of Solidarity. Ost tells a fascinating story about the evolution of postcommunist society in Eastern Europe. Informed by years of fieldwork in Polish factory towns, scores of interviews with workers, labor activists, and politicians, and an exhaustive reading of primary sources, his new book gives voice to those who have not been heard. But even more, Ost proposes a novel theory about the role of anger in politics to show why such voices matter, and how they profoundly affect political outcomes. Drawing on Poland's experiences, Ost describes lessons relevant to democratization throughout Eastern Europe and to democratic theory in general.

Governing the Post-communist City
Governing the Post-communist City

Author: Martin Horak

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0802093280

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When faced with the rapid and disorienting transition from communism to democracy, many eastern European leaders sought simple, immediately rewarding answers to complex policy problems. Undoubtedly, this hurried approach had a significant impact on the quality of democratic government in formerly communist countries. Through an analysis of urban politics in Prague between 1990 and 2000, Governing the Post-Communist City sheds new light on the factors that shaped policy in eastern Europe at the time of its democratic transformation. The first book-length study of post-communist urban politics in a city outside of Russia, Governing the Post-Communist City links the difficulties of democratic government in 1990s Prague to decisions made shortly after the fall of communism. Focusing on the issues of road infrastructure and downtown development, Martin Horak argues that local leadership was more concerned with insulating policy-making processes from public influence than with creating new policies suited to post-communist urban development. This set a precedent for the whole institutional environment of post-communist Prague and entrenched itself in the city's politics throughout the 1990s. Original, engaging, and authoritative, this study has much to say about the political climate in Prague after the downfall of communism, and makes insightful conclusions about the factors that contributed to present political circumstances in the region.

Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe
Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe

Author: F. Millard

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-01-08

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 023000086X

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Elections, Parties and Representation in Post-Communist Europe 1990-2002 stresses the ways in which the development of political parties affected the quality of democracy, the nature of political representation, and political accountability in the early stages of post-communist politics. It also analyzes the nature and consequences of the corpus of parliamentary candidates and deputies for the representation of social classes, women and minorities. In contrast with the wide social profile of communist parliaments, politics largely became the playground of new highly educated male elites.

Postcommunist Elites and Democracy in Eastern Europe
Postcommunist Elites and Democracy in Eastern Europe

Author: John Higley

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 1998-04-15

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 9780333715642

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Changing configurations of national elites are shaping the prospects for democracy in the countries of postcommunist Eastern Europe. In several countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia) there are unchecked power struggles between elites, with regimes oscillating between democratic and authoritarian tendencies. In other countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic) restrained elite competitions are being institutionalized and are leading to stable democratic regimes. These and other outcomes are analyzed for the region as a whole.

The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe
The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe

Author: DEREK HUTCHESON

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1351376160

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This collection of articles brings together a number of perspectives - both macro and micro-analytical - on the 'quality' of democracy in post-communist Europe, fifteen years from the start of the transition process.