Download or read book Formal Institutions and Informal Politics in Central and Eastern Europe written by Gerd Meyer and published by Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2006 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deals with political science.
Download or read book Informal Relations from Democratic Representation to Corruption written by Zdenka and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informal relations have been one of the major research topics of the social sciences since the 1990s. In order to allow for meaningful comparisons between different combinations of the positive and negative effects of informal relations on democratic representation, this book focuses on post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe as a particular region where formal democratic rules have been established, but competing informal rules are still strong. A broad spectrum of related analytical concepts is discussed from different perspectives and from different academic disciplines, then empirical cases of the relationship between informal relations and democratic representation are analyzed. The contributions span the whole continuum, as we perceive it, from civil society networks seen as supporting democratic representation to the perversion of democratic representation through political corruption. The final part of the book takes a closer look at corruption through four case studies from Russia.
Download or read book Informal Politics in Post Communist Europe written by Michal Klíma and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a fascinating, thought-provoking and ground-breaking study of post-communist political life. It is one of the first full-length academic works to explore the question of how informal structures, headed by bosses, godfathers and oligarchs, affect formal party politics and democracy.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Populism written by Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Populism presents the state of the art of research on populism from the perspective of Political Science. The book features work from the leading experts in the field, and synthesizes the main strands of research in four compact sections: concepts, issues, regions, and normative debates. Due to its breath, The Oxford Handbook of Populism is an invaluable resource for those interested in the study of populism, but also forexperts in each of the topics discussed, who will benefit from accounts of current discussions and research gaps, as well as a map of new directions in the study of populism.
Download or read book Presidents above Parties written by Vít Hloušek and published by Masarykova univerzita. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Postavení prezidenta v jiných než prezidentských politických systémech patří k méně analyzovaným aspektům politiky. V zemích střední a východní Evropy může přitom existovat určitá diskrepance mezi formálním a reálným postavením hlav států. Předkládaná, anglicky psaná kniha mapuje, zda se zde po roce 1989 objevily tendence k většímu zapojení či osobnímu angažmá prezidentů v každodenní politice, co bylo jejich příčinou, jak se projevovaly a zda je můžeme vysvětlit spíše osobností prezidenta, nebo strukturou politických příležitostí, která nabídla prezidentovi větší prostor pro osobní politickou realizaci.
Download or read book Civil Service Systems in Central and Eastern Europe written by Tony Verheijen and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of public administration, economics, and political science, most from the region but some from western Europe and the US, describe the emerging civil service systems in nine countries, revealing the patterns that are developing during transition. They apply the methodological framework developed by the Civil Service Research Consortium to each country, providing a high degree of coherence that facilitates comparative analysis. They consider such aspects as the history of the system, internal labor markets, public opinion, relations between politicians and administrators, and civil service reform and development. They also take into account outside factors such as the possibility of joining the European Union. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Political Elites in East Central Europe written by Nicole Gallina and published by Verlag Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2008-10-29 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph is a major survey of East Central European (ECE) political elites and concentrates on Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. It is grounded within classic elite theory slightly adapted to ECE necessities. More practically, the book examines political elite composition and identifies political elite fragmentation in ECE. The author questions that East Central European political elites have incorporated democratic values and conduct. The main argument is that there is a significant gap between the formal democratic ECE institutions and political elite behaviour. This gap has different dimensions which are relevant at the domestic level and also cause problems at the EU level. Ultimately, the political elite-institution gap questions democratic political achievements after 1989. In providing a major analysis of ECE political elite structure and conduct the book points to the most urgent challenges of ECE political systems – the reform of the political elite. From the content: The Importance of Analysing ECE Elites Forms of Political Elite Formation and Activity Political Elite Fragmentation in ECE Elite Formation and Reproduction in East Central Europe Patterns of Political Elite Behaviour Influencing Political Elite Behaviour Institutional Change after 1989 The Relationship between Europeanisation and Euroscepticism Elite Systems in East Central Europe Case Studies: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary Implications of Elite Attitudes for Europeanisation Political Elites: Incapable Europeanisers?
Download or read book The Politics of East European Area Studies written by Gareth Dale and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-13 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the end of the Cold War and European Union enlargement, in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geo-political concept? In addressing this question, contributors to this volume—Alex Cistelecan, Robert Bideleux, Katalin Miklóssy and Dieter Segert—tease out the implications for an ‘Area Studies’ approach to the region. They examine its contradictory situation within discourses of ‘orientalisation’: on one hand, posited as the ‘underdeveloped’ pendant to its western neighbours; on the other, largely Christian by religion and an integral part of a continent that dominated the world. They uncover the roots of area studies in the ‘colonial paradigm’ by which great powers promote the creation of predictive, ‘problem-solving’ knowledge that is immediately apprehendable for decision makers, helping them to take advantage of a region’s resources and strategic position, but which tends to homogenise the region’s geography and history. For critical inquiry, they argue, the challenge is to delineate transparently the reasons underlying Eastern Europe’s construction as an area of study, to identify the epistemological interests of motivated organisations such as funding agencies and political bodies, and to counter the ongoing orientalism of Western perspectives toward the East. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.
Download or read book Entrepreneurship in the Informal Sector written by Colin C. Williams and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How many businesses start-ups conduct some or all of their trade ‘off-the-books’? And how many enterprises continue to do some of their work off-the-books once they are more established? What should be done about them? Should governments adopt ever more punitive measures to eradicate them? Or should we recognise this hidden enterprise culture and attempt to harness it? If so, how can this be done? What measures can be taken to ensure that businesses start-up in a proper manner? And what can be done to help those enterprises and entrepreneurs currently working off-the-books to legitimise their businesses? The aim of this book is to advance a new way of answering these questions. Drawing inspiration from institutional theory, informal sector entrepreneurship is explained as resulting from the asymmetry between the codified laws and regulations of a society’s formal institutions and the norms, values and beliefs that comprise a society’s informal institutions. The argument is that if the norms, values and beliefs of entrepreneurs (i.e., their individual morality) were wholly aligned with the codified laws and regulations (i.e., state morality), there would be no informal sector entrepreneurship. However, because the individual morality of entrepreneurs differs from state morality, such as due to their lack of trust in government and the rule of law, the result is the prevalence of informal sector entrepreneurship. The greater the degree of institutional asymmetry, the higher is the propensity to engage in informal sector entrepreneurship. This book provides evidence to show that this is the case both at the individual- and country-level and then discusses how this can be overcome. .
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 2019-03-19 with total page 148 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. equently 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 Parliamentary Elites in Central and Eastern Europe written by Elena Semenova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legislators are entrusted with key parliamentary functions and are important figures in the decision-making process. Their behaviour as political elites is as much responsible for the failures and successes of the new democracies as their institutional designs and constitutional reforms. This book provides a comparative examination of representative elites and their role in democratic development in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It argues that as the drivers of the transformation process in CEE, individual and collective parliamentary actors matter. The authors provide an in-depth analysis of representatives from eleven national parliaments and explore country-specific features of recruitment and representation. They draw on an integrated dataset of parliamentary elites for individual, party family, and parliamentary variables over the 20 years following the collapse of Communism and develop a common framework for the analysis of variations in democratisation and political professionalisation between parliaments and political parties/party families across CEE. This unique volume will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, elite research, post-communist politics, democratisation, legislative studies, and parliamentary representation.
Download or read book Central and Eastern Europe After Transition written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have national identities changed, developed and reacted in the wake of transition from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe? Central and Eastern Europe After Transition defines and examines new autonomous differences adopted at the state and the supranational level in the post-transitional phase of the post-Communist area, and considers their impact on constitutions, democracy and legal culture. With representative contributions from older and newer EU members, the book provides a broad set of cultural points for reference. Its comparative and interdisciplinary approach includes a useful selection of bibliographical resources specifically devoted to the Central Eastern European countries' transitions.
Download or read book Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989 written by Sabrina P. Ramet and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-18 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only textbook to provide a complete introduction to post-1989 Central and Southeast European politics, this dynamic volume provides a comprehensive account of the collapse of communism and the massive transformation that the region has witnessed. It brings together 23 leading specialists to trace the course of the dramatic changes accompanying democratization. The text provides country-by-country coverage, identifying common themes and enabling students to see which are shared throughout the area, giving them a sense of its unity and comparability whilst strengthening understanding around its many different trajectories. The dual thematic focus on democratization and Europeanization running through the text also helps to reinforce this learning process. Each chapter contains a factual overview to give the reader context concerning the region which will be useful for specialists and newcomers to the subject alike.
Download or read book Declining Democracy in East Central Europe written by Attila Ágh and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic decline of democracy in East-Central Europe has attracted great interest world-wide. Going beyond the narrow spectrum of the extensive literature on this topic, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of ECE region – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – from systemic change in 1989 to 2019 to explain the reasons of the collapse of ECE democratic systems in the 2010s.
Download or read book Meaningful Reform in the Western Balkans written by Eric D. Gordy and published by Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains collection of articles which provide policy implications related to the problem of achieving substantive reform on the basis of harmonising legislation in Western Balkan (WB) countries with the standards of the European Union (EU). While WB states have generally been successful in adopting legal reforms that make up a part of EU conditionality, many laws remain unenforced, amounting to "empty shells." In the space between law, as it is written, and practices as they are engaged in everyday life, exists a gap, characterized by informality, clientelism, and exchange often based on strong tie relationships. Some instances of informality undermine the goal of establishing rule law and contribute to corruption. Others offer valuable solutions to persistent social problems or represent traditional vehicles of social cohesion that should be promoted. The recommendations in this book seek to address both constructive and damaging instances of informality, and to identify policy measures that can help to harmonise not only legislation, but existing informal practices on the ground.
Download or read book Stubborn Structures written by Bálint Magyar and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-10 with total page 713 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editor of this book has brought together contributions designed to capture the essence of post-communist politics in East-Central Europe and Eurasia. Rather than on the surface structures of nominal democracies, the nineteen essays focus on the informal, often intentionally hidden, disguised and illicit understandings and arrangements that penetrate formal institutions. These phenomena often escape even the best-trained outside observers, familiar with the concepts of established democracies. Contributors to this book share the view that understanding post-communist politics is best served by a framework that builds from the ground up, proceeding from a fundamental social context. The book aims at facilitating a lexical convergence; in the absence of a robust vocabulary for describing and discussing these often highly complex informal phenomena, the authors wish to advance a new terminology of post-communist regimes. Instead of a finite dictionary, a kind of conceptual cornucopia is offered. The resulting variety reflects a larger harmony of purpose that can significantly expand the understanding the “real politics” of post-communist regimes. Countries analyzed from a variety of aspects, comparatively or as single case studies, include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.
Download or read book Institutional Theory in Political Science written by B. Guy Peters and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutional Theory in Political Science provides an in-depth analysis of contemporary institutional theory, an essential tool to understand the world of politics and government. Written by B. Guy Peters, a prominent expert in the field, the book argues that the new institutionalism comprises eight variations on the theme of institutional analysis. Through a series of questions, the author assesses the possibility of a unified theory within institutionalism and its potential as a paradigm for political science. This new edition incorporates the most recent developments in the research on the various institutionalisms. It also includes a new chapter that brings into the discussion themes of discursive politics and constructivism. Although the focus is on political science, attention is paid to institutionalism in other disciplines. Institutional Theory in Political Science, 3rd Edition, reflects the state of the field today while building on the foundations set in the previous editions. This unique work will be of value to anyone studying institutionalism, as well as political institutions, and public administration.
