Download or read book Democratic Innovations in Central and Eastern Europe written by Sergiu Gherghina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democratic Innovations in Central and Eastern Europe expands research on democratic innovations by looking specifically at different forms of democratic innovations in Central and Eastern Europe. The book covers direct democracy (referendums in particular), deliberative democracy practices and e-participation – forms which are salient in practice because they match the political realities of our time. Expert contributors show how the recent actions of ordinary citizens in several Central and Eastern European countries have challenged the contemporary political order, and grassroots movements and diverse forms of mobilization have challenged the notion of weak civil societies in the East. The empirical evidence presented attempts to deepen citizen involvement in political contexts sometimes quite different from the democratic political systems in the Western world. Using lessons from a still largely underexplored part of Europe, the book both complements and revises theoretical approaches, or complements empirical results in existing studies on democratic innovations. Democratic Innovations in Central and Eastern Europe will be of great interest to scholars working on democracy, political systems, political engagement, and Central and Eastern European politics. The chapters originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Politics.
Download or read book Challenging Citizens Democratic Innovations at the Local Level written by Pavel Šaradín and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-12-11 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book aims to complement the existing research on democratic innovations mainly by making unique comparative analyses of the democratic innovations at the local level in selected European post-communist countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Democratic innovations can help overcome political apathy, decreased confidence in democracy and improve efficiency of governance. We traditionally consider cities and municipalities to be cradles of democracy and connect them with deliberations on the further development of democratic theory and political practice. We therefore argue that the local level is a suitable arena and laboratory for both changes of institutional settings within the traditional model of representative democracy, and the structural changes, which concern changing relations between local representatives and citizens.
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 128 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 Central and East European Politics written by Sharon L. Wolchik and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2010-11-16 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in a fully updated edition, this essential text explores the other half of Europe, the new and future members of the EU along with the problems and potential they bring to the region and to the world stage.
Download or read book Policy Experiments Failures and Innovations written by Agnes Batory and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policy Experiments, Failures and Innovations takes a policy studies perspective in considering post-communist EU member states’ experiences since accession. The book analyses policy transfer processes and expands the new and growing sub-field of policy failure by interrogating the binary ideas of ‘failure’ and ‘success’ in the context of the Central Eastern European (CEE) transition, democratic consolidation and European Union membership.
Download or read book Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe written by Patrice C. McMahon and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-07 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe elevates the voices of civic activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyzes a wealth of information to generate new insights into how activism in the region manages to be vibrant, diverse, and consequential. Because of these countries’ unique historical trajectory, CEE activists have, in important ways, leap-frogged their counterparts in the West. Giving special attention to activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, the book focuses on responses to the recent “hard times” – the shrinking of public space for civil society, democratic backsliding, polarization, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The contributors contend that CEE activists provide important lessons for others confronting similar challenges around the world. The book is well-suited for a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, such as comparative politics, human rights, global governance, social movements, Central and East European politics, and contemporary world politics. This timely and readable book, co-created by academics and activists and written in a conversational tone, will also be of interest to the interested public and practitioners. The book encourages readers to think differently about the role of civil society and activism, as well as about how new tools and polarizing dynamics affect activism in this region.
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 Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe written by Brigitte Geißel and published by Verlag Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Representative democracy is often seen as a stable institutional system insusceptible to change. However, the preferences of the broad public are changing and representative, group based democracy has lost importance. This development made it necessary to change established ways of decision making and to introduce participatory democratic innovations. Many national and sub-national governments followed this route and implemented various kinds of participatory innovations, i.e. the inclusion of citizens into processes of political will-formation and decisionmaking. The authors analyse and evaluate the various effects of these innovations in Europe, providing a bigger picture of the benefits and disadvantages different democratic innovations can result in.
Download or read book Achieving Democracy Through Interest Representation written by Patrycja Rozbicka and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses the quality of democracy through the study of organized interests in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since the collapse of communism in 1989 up to 2017. It offers a much-needed comprehensive look into formal interest representation in CEE countries and compares this with the model in Western democracies. Drawing on democratic theory and comparative analysis, the authors explore the effects of a legal framework, political as well as social contexts. The volume contributes to debates on the performance of young democracies in CEE, where scholars argue that there is a ‘democratic crisis’ and democratic fatigue while the interest group system is often labelled as weak and, in some cases, underdeveloped. Although great efforts have been made to deepen our understanding of interest organization and lobbying tools, the current literature fails to provide a comprehensive answer on the influence of unsupportive environments on population ecology. The case of CEE countries shows significant effects of political and social contexts on interest representation, stimulating a debate about the quality of democratic institutions following the collapse of communism.
Download or read book Rethinking Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe written by Licia Cianetti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to inject fresh thinking into the debate on democratic deterioration in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), viewing ‘democratic backsliding’ through the prism of a range of cases beyond Hungary and Poland, to redress the imbalance in current scholarship. Over the past decade a consensus has emerged that democracy in CEE is sharply deteriorating, perhaps even ‘backsliding’ into new forms of authoritarianism. Debate has, however, so far focused disproportionately on the two most dramatic and surprising cases: Hungary and Poland. This book reflects on the ‘backsliding’ debate through the experience of CEE countries such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Estonia; as well as neighbouring post-communist regions such as the Western Balkans and former Soviet Union (cases such as Moldova and Ukraine), whose patterns of failing or partial democratisation may be newly instructive for analysing the development of CEE. Contributors present less frequently considered perspectives on ‘democratic backsliding’ in the CEE region, such as the role of oligarchisation and wealth concentration; the potential of ethnographical approaches to democracy evaluation; the trade-offs between democratic quality and democratic stability; and the long-term interplay between social movements, state-building, and democratisation. This book was originally published as a special issue of East European Politics.
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 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 Handbook of Direct Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 written by Maria Marczewska-Rytko and published by Verlag Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2018-04-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the political history of Central and Eastern Europe has been mainly the story of arise, consolidation, transformation and struggles of new democratic regimes and societies. The handbook offers an instructive approach to that history focusing on the relevance of practices and institutions of direct democracy. It collects 20 political analyses of direct democracy in 20 Central and Eastern European countries after 1989.
Download or read book Development on the Periphery written by Howard J. Wiarda and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Development on the Periphery, noted textbook author Howard J. Wiarda tackles the important question of development in Southern and Eastern Europe. Comparing the two regions gives us insight into the similarities and differences that have united and separated them for thousands of years."--Jacket.
Download or read book The Kremlin Playbook written by Heather A. Conley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-27 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia has cultivated an opaque web of economic and political patronage across the Central and Eastern European region that the Kremlin uses to influence and direct decisionmaking. This report from the CSIS Europe Program, in partnership with the Bulgarian Center for the Study of Democracy, is the result of a 16-month study on the nature of Russian influence in five case countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Serbia.
Download or read book The Political History of Eastern Europe in the 20th Century written by Sten Berglund and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents an introduction to the struggle between democracy and dictatorship in Eastern Europe since 1900. It is broken down into three different parts focusing on those time periods when experiments with democracy threatened to change the established order - the inter-war period, the democratic or semi democratic interlude in the wake of World War II until 1949 and the current experience with the new democracies. In discussing the struggle between democracy and dictatorship, the authors argue that the experience of Eastern Europe reveals the challenges which threaten democracy and the conditions necessary for the survival of democratic government.
Download or read book Democracy and Political Culture in Eastern Europe written by Hans-Dieter Klingemann and published by Taylor & Francis US. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
