Download or read book The Citizens Concept of Democracy in Post communist Europe written by János Simon and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democracy and Its Alternatives written by Richard Rose and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1998-10-16 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collapse of Communism has created the opportunity for democracy to spread from Prague to the Baltic and Black Seas. But the alternatives—dictatorship or totalitarian rule—are more in keeping with the traditions of Central Europe. And for many post-Communist societies, democracy has come to be associated with inflation, unemployment, crime, and corruption. Is it still true, then, as Winston Churchill suggested a half-century ago, that people will accept democracy with all its faults—because it is better than anything else? To find out, political scientists Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer examine evidence from post-Communist societies in eastern Europe. Drawing on data from public opinion and exit polls, election results, and interviews, the authors present testable hypotheses regarding regime change, consolidation, and prospects for stabilization. The authors point out that the abrupt transition to democracy in post-Communist countries is normal; gradual evolution in the Anglo-American way is the exception to the rule. While most recent books on democratization focus on Latin America and, to some extent, Asia, the present volume offers a unique look at the process currently under way in nine eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Despite the many problems these post-Communist societies are experiencing in making the transition to a more open and democratic polity, the authors conclude that a little democracy is better than no democracy at all.
Download or read book Democracy and Democratization written by John D Nagle and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1999-05-26 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy written by Richard D. Anderson Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did the wave of democracy that swept the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe starting more than a decade ago develop in ways unexpected by observers who relied on existing theories of democracy? In Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy, four distinguished scholars conduct the first major assessment of democratization theory in light of the experience of postcommunist states. Richard Anderson, Steven Fish, Stephen Hanson, and Philip Roeder not only apply theory to practice, but using a wealth of empirical evidence, draw together the elements of existing theory into new syntheses. The authors each highlight a development in postcommunist societies that reveals an anomaly or lacuna in existing theory. They explain why authoritarian leaders abandon authoritarianism, why democratization sometimes reverses course, how subjects become citizens by beginning to take sides in politics, how rulers become politicians by beginning to seek popular support, and not least, how democracy becomes consolidated. Rather than converging on a single approach, each author shows how either a rationalist, institutionalist, discursive, or Weberian approach sheds light on this transformation. They conclude that the experience of postcommunist democracy demands a rethinking of existing theory. To that end, they offer rich new insights to scholars, advanced students, policymakers, and anyone interested in postcommunist states or in comparative democratization.
Download or read book The Quality of Democracy in Post Communist Europe written by DEREK HUTCHESON and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The countries of the former Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union have exhibited remarkable diversity in their post-communist regime paths. Whereas some states have become demonstrably more democratic and have moved in the space of fifteen years from the periphery to the centre of European politics, in others the political and economic climates seem hardly to be better, and their societies no more free, than in the final years of the Cold War. Assessing progress towards democracy in the former Eastern Bloc - or the lack of it - requires a qualitative examination of post-communist polities. This collection of articles brings together a number of perspectives, both macro and micro-analytical, on the 'quality' of democracy in post-communist Europe. This volume was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.
Download or read book The Weakness of Civil Society in Post Communist Europe written by Marc Morjé Howard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeks to explain the weakness of civil society in the countries of post-Communist Europe.
Download or read book Trust and Democratic Transition in Post Communist Europe written by Ivana Marková and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-09 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These ten essays are concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-Communist Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989. Differences between meanings of trust in countries with democratic traditions and in post-totalitarian countries raise questions about the ways in which history, culture and social psychology shape the nature and development of political phenomena. The authors show that while political and economic changes can have rapid effects, cultural and psychological changes may linger behind and influence the quality of political trust and representations of democracy.
Download or read book Democracy without Engagement written by Marius I. Tatar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do post-communist citizens engage in the new democracies of Eastern Europe after decades of repressive control exerted by the communist regimes? Are people’s involvement in post-communist politics influenced by generic socioeconomic and attitudinal traits, or is it primarily driven by selective mobilization opportunities provided by social networks and organizations? Democracy without Engagement?: Understanding Political Participation in Post-Communist Romania presents a broad framework for conceptualizing and measuring citizen participation and applies it to Romania as a typical post-communist democracy illustrating the low rates of political activism in the region. Separate chapters examine post-communist citizens’ participation in elections, attempts to influence authorities beyond voting, cognitive engagement in politics, and direct involvement in local decision-making. Using large-N statistical analyses, the author argues that individuals’ socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics have relatively weak influences on citizen participation in the post-communist context. Instead, various organizations and social networks act as politically recruiting and mobilizing agents, driving citizen participation into political actions that can challenge or strengthen democracy. In the absence of a well-developed participatory political culture that would enable citizens to act autonomously in the political sphere, the persistence of post-communist democracies largely depends on the goals and methods pursued by these mobilizing agents.
Download or read book The Anatomy of Post Communist Regimes written by Bálint Magyar and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-20 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a single, coherent framework of the political, economic, and social phenomena that characterize post-communist regimes, this is the most comprehensive work on the subject to date. Focusing on Central Europe, the post-Soviet countries and China, the study provides a systematic mapping of possible post-communist trajectories. At exploring the structural foundations of post-communist regime development, the work discusses the types of state, with an emphasis on informality and patronalism; the variety of actors in the political, economic, and communal spheres; the ways autocrats neutralize media, elections, etc. The analysis embraces the color revolutions of civil resistance (as in Georgia and in Ukraine) and the defensive mechanisms of democracy and autocracy; the evolution of corruption and the workings of “relational economy”; an analysis of China as “market-exploiting dictatorship”; the sociology of “clientage society”; and the instrumental use of ideology, with an emphasis on populism. Beyond a cataloguing of phenomena—actors, institutions, and dynamics of post-communist democracies, autocracies, and dictatorships—Magyar and Madlovics also conceptualize everything as building blocks to a larger, coherent structure: a new language for post-communist regimes. While being the most definitive book on the topic, the book is nevertheless written in an accessible style suitable for both beginners who wish to understand the logic of post-communism and scholars who are interested in original contributions to comparative regime theory. The book is equipped with QR codes that link to www.postcommunistregimes.com, which contains interactive, 3D supplementary material for teaching.
Download or read book Communism s Shadow written by Grigore Pop-Eleches and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has long been assumed that the historical legacy of Soviet Communism would have an important effect on post-communist states. However, prior research has focused primarily on the institutional legacy of communism. Communism's Shadow instead turns the focus to the individuals who inhabit post-communist countries, presenting a rigorous assessment of the legacy of communism on political attitudes. Post-communist citizens hold political, economic, and social opinions that consistently differ from individuals in other countries. Grigore Pop-Eleches and Joshua Tucker introduce two distinct frameworks to explain these differences, the first of which focuses on the effects of living in a post-communist country, and the second on living through communism. Drawing on large-scale research encompassing post-communist states and other countries around the globe, the authors demonstrate that living through communism has a clear, consistent influence on why citizens in post-communist countries are, on average, less supportive of democracy and markets and more supportive of state-provided social welfare. The longer citizens have lived through communism, especially as adults, the greater their support for beliefs associated with communist ideology—the one exception being opinions regarding gender equality. A thorough and nuanced examination of communist legacies' lasting influence on public opinion, Communism's Shadow highlights the ways in which political beliefs can outlast institutional regimes.
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
Download or read book Meandering in Transition written by Ostap Kushnir and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection addresses the dynamics of the post-Communist transition in Central Eastern Europe. Its contributors present a detailed analysis of the events unfolding during the last three decades in the region, focusing in particular on identity-building processes and reforms in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The contributors outline reasons why some of these states accomplished a decisive break with the Communist past and became members of European and transatlantic structures, while some opted for pseudo-transition and fostered hybrid political regimes, jeopardizing their genuine integration with the West. A group of states which decided to preserve their Communist legacy is also explained. The collection describes and scrutinizes the formation of geopolitical affiliations and the evolution of discourses of belonging. It also traces the fluctuating dynamics of national decision-making and institution-building, as many of the post-Communist states reconsider and re-elaborate their initial ideas and visions of Europe today. Finally, the collection brings to light the rapidly changing perceptions of the region by the major global actors—the European Union, People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, and others.
Download or read book Political Culture in Post communist Europe written by Detlef Pollack and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2003 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text aims to sketch some of the challenging issues of the attitudinal dimension of system changes. It provides facts and figures on the progress of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe.
Download or read book The Postcommunist Citizen written by Samuel Henry Barnes and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democratic Theory and Post communist Change written by Robert D. Grey and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the demise of authoritarian governments in Europe and South America, the fall of Communism in eastern and central Europe, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, scholars of democratization have been provided with an opportunity to test their theories against reality. Democratic Theory and Post-Communist Change represents the result of a collaborative effort of scholars trained in political science, sociology, law, and economics. These scholars analyze relevant democratic theory and apply it to recent events in the formerly communist states. Editor Robert D. Grey introduces this analysis by tracing the rise and fall of communism and examining democracy in the post-communist world. Other sections examine what political entities need to do to make the transition to democracy and ensure its stability, whether or not "The People" matter to democracy, and what political orientations are supportive of it. The conversion to "Rule of Law" and "Constitutionalism" and their relationship to democracy and the free market are studied. How democracy will fare in an environment of cultural diversity, what the development and impact of economic policy will be, and how the promotion and support of democracy by international powers will affect its success are among the topics considered. An interdisciplinary fusion of theory and empirical analysis, Democratic Theory and Post-Communist Change represents a comprehensive and informative study of the conditions for and processes of democratization in the former communist world.
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 Neo militant Democracies in Post communist Member States of the European Union written by Joanna Rak and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines contemporary militant democracies in post-communist states in the European Union. Examining, through case studies, their broader relevance to political, legal, and social structures, this book looks in revealing detail at the struggles between these democratic and anti-democratic actors that share similar historical experiences of contentious politics, communism, and political transformation. It importantly unravels the tension between them, determining which are already authoritarian, and which are teetering on the brink of an anti-democratic breakthrough. Analysing regimes’ continuance trajectories to capture how and what shaped the neo-militant aspects of democracies (neomilitancy) over time, the book accounts for why particular post-communist European neo-militant democracies emerge while others decline or transform into quasi-militant democracies despite transformation, how they differ from each other, what brings about the differences and similarities between them, and how and why they change over time. With right-wing populist parties coming to power on the back of fears associated with economic, social, and cultural globalisation and the misuse of state authorities to strengthen protective measures against threats to democratic institutions, the book represents a timely and important contribution. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Post-Soviet/Communist/East European Studies, Democratic Backsliding, European and Comparative Politics, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, Democracy and Dictatorship, Public Comparative Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law and Political Theory.
