Download or read book Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe Volume 1 Institutional Engineering written by Jan Zielonka and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume in a series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. The series focuses on three major aspects of democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe: institutional engineering, transnational pressures and civil society. This first volume analyses constraints on and opportunities of institutional engineering in Eastern Europe: to what extent and how elites in Eastern Europe have been able to shape, if not manipulate, the politics of democraticconsolidation through institutional means.The aim is to contrast a set of democracy theories with empirical evidence accumulated in Eastern Europe over the last ten years. The volume tries to avoid complex debates about definitions, methods and the uses and misuses of comparative research. Instead it tries to establish what has really happened in the region, and which of the existing theories have proved helpful in explaining these developments.The volume starts with a presentation of conceptual and comparative frameworks, followed by in-depth empirical analyses of the thirteen individual countries undergoing democratic consolidation. The first conceptual and comparative part contains three chapters. The first chapter explains what institutional engineering is about and describes our experiences with institutional engineering in former transitions to democracy. It also focuses on the import and export of institutional designs. Thesecond chapter analyses the utility of constitutions in the process of democratic consolidation. The third chapter compares constitutional designs and problems of implementation in Southern and Eastern Europe. The empirical case studies deal with the following countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland. And the conclusions evaluate the enormous impact of institutions on politics in Eastern Europe and show how central constitutional designs are to the institutional engineering in the societies undergoing transitions to democracy.

Download or read book Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe Volume 2 International and Transnational Factors written by Jan Zielonka and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2001-06-14 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second volume in a two-volume series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. The first volume focused on the issue of institutional engineering. This second volume analyses the external parameters of democratic consolidation in thirteen Eastern European countries: how different international actors and various economic, cultural and security types of transnational pressures have shaped democratic politics in the region. The aim is to contrast a set of democracy theories with empirical evidence accumulated in Eastern Europe over the last ten years. The volume tries to avoid complex debates about definitions, methods and the uses and misuses of comparative research. Instead it seeks to establish what has really happened in the region, and which of the existing theories are helpful in explaining these developments. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part presents a conceptual and comparative frame of analysis, the second consists of detailed studies of individual countries undergoing democratic consolidation. Case study chapters deal with the following countries: Estonia and Latvia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia, the states of former Yugoslavia, Belarus and Ukraine, and finally Russia. The concluding chapter identifies a set of variables responsible for the enormous impact of external factors on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. It conceptualises the interplay of internal and external factors impinging upon democracy, and shows the interplay of different positive and negative types of external pressures. It also evaluates the conscious Western effort to craft or engineer democracy in Eastern Europe.

Download or read book Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe Volume 1 Institutional Engineering written by Jan Zielonka and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2001-06-14 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume in a series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. The series focuses on three major aspects of democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe: institutional engineering, transnational pressures and civil society. This first volume analyses constraints on and opportunities of institutional engineering in Eastern Europe: to what extent and how elites in Eastern Europe have been able to shape, if not manipulate, the politics of democraticconsolidation through institutional means.The aim is to contrast a set of democracy theories with empirical evidence accumulated in Eastern Europe over the last ten years. The volume tries to avoid complex debates about definitions, methods and the uses and misuses of comparative research. Instead it tries to establish what has really happened in the region, and which of the existing theories have proved helpful in explaining these developments.The volume starts with a presentation of conceptual and comparative frameworks, followed by in-depth empirical analyses of the thirteen individual countries undergoing democratic consolidation. The first conceptual and comparative part contains three chapters. The first chapter explains what institutional engineering is about and describes our experiences with institutional engineering in former transitions to democracy. It also focuses on the import and export of institutional designs. Thesecond chapter analyses the utility of constitutions in the process of democratic consolidation. The third chapter compares constitutional designs and problems of implementation in Southern and Eastern Europe. The empirical case studies deal with the following countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland. And the conclusions evaluate the enormous impact of institutions on politics in Eastern Europe and show how central constitutional designs are to the institutional engineering in the societies undergoing transitions to democracy.

Download or read book International and Transnational Factors written by Jan Zielonka and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe Institutional engineering written by Jan Zielonka and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Consolidation of Democracy in East Central Europe written by Karen Dawisha and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-06-13 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by two of the world's leading analysts of post-communist politics, this book brings together distinguished specialists on the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The authors analyse the patterns of post-communist democratization in these countries, paying particular attention to the process of party formation, electoral politics, the growth of civil society, and the impact of economic reform on the emergence of interest groups. Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott provide theoretical and comparative chapters on post-communist political development across the region. This book will provide students and scholars with detailed analysis by leading authorities, plus the latest research data on recent political and economic developments in each country.

Download or read book Institutions and Democratic Consolidation in East Central Europe written by Wolfgang Merkel and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe written by K. Beyme and published by Springer. This book was released on 1996-11-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive study of the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe which includes the processes in party-formation, political culture-building, institution-building and economic transformation, and to differentiate between areas and countries. East and southeastern Europe are included as well as the Republics of the former Soviet Union. The theories of transformation to democracy developed in former transitions, such as 1919, 1945 and the 1970s are tested in the case of Eastern Europe. In many areas the picture developed by the author is not very optimistic. He feels that 'Anocracy', a mixture between democracy and authoritarian regimes, is likely to develop in many countries.

Download or read book Institutional Design In New Democracies written by Arend Lijphart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the relationship between the tasks of institutional design and the outcomes of the process of economic and political liberalization in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe. The contributors emphasize the design of institutions to serve a market economy, the design of electoral laws, and the design of executive-legislative relations. Within this framework each chapter discusses the legacy of the pre-existing authoritarian regime; the range of preferences among various strategic actors with regard to the pace and mix of reforms; and the consequences of final choices for the institutionalization of effective economies and the process of democratization. Countries throughout Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe are moving from semi-closed to open economies and from authoritarian to democratic political systems. Despite important differences between the regions, these transitions involve similar tasks: the establishment of governmental institutions and electoral systems conducive to legitimation of the new and fragile democracies and expansion of the institutional infrastructure of a market economy. This volume looks at both regions, focusing on the relationship between the tasks of institutional design and the outcomes of the process of economic and political liberalization. In particular, the contributors emphasize the design of institutions to serve a market economy, the design of electoral laws, and the design of executive-legislative relations. Each chapter discusses the legacy of the pre-existing authoritarian regime; the range of preferences among various strategic actors (the government, state bureaucracies, opposition parties, and interest groups) with regard to the pace and mix of reforms; and the consequences of final choices for the institutionalization of effective economies and the process of democratization.

Download or read book The State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe written by Ramona Coman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe brings together scholars specialising in the study of Central and Eastern Europe, and provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the major issues in the democratic make-up of the EU’s new member states. The book covers the main dimensions of the state, and contributors discuss questions about the development of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe over the past twenty years. What is the present state of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe more than twenty years since the end of communist regimes? What is the actual functioning of the political institutions of these countries? How is political participation structured, and what role do political parties play in these democracies? What guarantees are provided to limit governmental powers and abuse? What is the role of the judicial system, and the relationship between justice and politics? How can we evaluate the EU’s influence regarding democratic consolidation? What is the role of the public opinion? This book was originally published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

Download or read book Challenges to Democracy written by Sten Berglund and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The book is written in a systematic, clear and accessible style and provides an excellent introduction to the state of democracy in contemporary postsocialist Europe. . . . Recommended for undergraduate, graduate, research, and faculty collections.' - P. Rutland, Choice The euphoria evidenced in the aftermath of the collapse of communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s sometimes conveyed the impression that the process of democratization would be achieved without difficulty or tribulation. This book sets out to provide a thorough comparative analysis of the challenges which face the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and considers the impact of political change. Drawing heavily on available survey data, the book provides an in-depth account of how the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe have coped with four major challenges: political fragmentation, nationalism, lack of respect for human rights, and poorly developed civil service systems. The book demonstrates that although the first few years of the 1990s were marked by increasing disenchantment with the new regimes, the change of governments as a direct result of the electoral process and the prospects for European integration have served to reverse this negative trend. Indeed, the authors find that the new political systems have managed to cope with the challenges so effectively that striking similarities with Western democracies are now apparent.

Download or read book The Economy and Political Culture in New Democracies An Analysis of Democratic Support in Central and Eastern Europe written by Kristin J. Broderick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Concept of Democracy in the Political Transformations of Central and Eastern Europe written by Maximilian Spinner and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-08 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: A-, Central European University Budapest (Dep. of Political Science), 17 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Based on the Hungarian and Polish cases of negotiated transition to democracy in 1989/90 this essay looks into the philosophical concept of democracy pursued by the main protagonists.

Download or read book Perspectives on Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe written by Dirk Berg-Schlosser and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume consists of twenty studies on problems related to "transition to democracy" in central and eastern Europe during the decade following the collapse of communist states. The book focuses on preconditions and problems of transitions, case studies, patterns of performance and consolidation and inter-regional comparative aspects.

Download or read book European Integration Democratic Consolidation and Democratic Regression in Central and Eastern Europe written by Eltion Meka and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Eastern enlargement of the EU represented a historic moment in breaking the East-West divide. EU membership (the international dimension of democratization) was expected to contribute to the consolidation of democracy in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). However, post-EU accession, a number of cases have been plagued with democratic crisis and in some cases even democratic regression. While another group of cases have become stable consolidated democracies. Current literature has been unable to provide an explanation for this variant outcome as the international dimension of democratization remains an under-theorized research program. In light of the theoretical gap in understanding the conditions under which the promotion of democracy by the EU is likely to be effective, this study asks: How can the variations in post-accession CEE be explained? This study argues that, those CEE states that are experiencing the strongest cases of democratic regression are the same states that exhibited the strongest majoritarian institutional designs during the pre-accession period. Yet, because the democratic regression that is being experienced in CEE began during the post-EU accession period, it is the argument of this study that the rigid pre-accession process was more conducive to democratic consolidation in those states exhibiting stronger consensual institutional designs than those exhibiting stronger majoritarian institutional designs. In order to test this hypothesis, this study adopted a mixed methodological approach. On the one hand, the study analyzed cross-sectional time-series data in order to test for the statistical significance of the proposed hypothesis. On the other hand, the study utilized a most-similar research design through a comparative analysis of six case studies. The purpose of the case studies was to elucidate the theoretical hypothesis described above, and to better understand the causal mechanisms of the proposed relationship between the variables of interest. The findings were able to confirm the hypothesis by showing that due to the more robust nature of political competition under consensual democracies, European integration proved beneficial to democratic consolidation, compared to the more limited form of political competition under more majoritarian designs.

Download or read book Democratization in Eastern Europe written by Geoffrey Pridham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an attempt to tackle the problem of democratization in East-Central Europe from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Its contributors look at the process of change within a comparative framework, discussing the emergence of multi-party and new electoral systems, comparing democratic transition in other parts of the world with that of Eastern Europe and analysing that region's relationship with the Soviet Union. Democratization in Eastern Europe will be indespensable to upper-level students of East European Politics, and will also be useful for those with more comparative and theoretical interests.

Download or read book Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation written by Juan J. Linz and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1996-08-16 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 5. Actors and contexts