[PDF] Democracy In Western And Post Communist Countries eBook

Author : Tadeusz Buksiński
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 20,59 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Aufsatzsammlung
ISBN : 9783631585436

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The authors of this book, scholars from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraina, Kirghizia and Poland, seek to answer the question, in what way the Westeuropean and postcommunist countries respond to the challenges posed to them by democratization in Central and Eastern Europe and European constitutional politics and policymaking. New democracies necessarily pose a challenge to non-democratic states, because they liberated themselves from the totalitarian regime. They pose a challenge for the old liberal democracies too, because they try to compromise individual interests and freedoms with traditional prepolitical and political group identities. But just the model of democracy can be followed in many non-Western countries which aspire to establish a democratic order. This book raises the questions that are particularly significant to the present-day political practice in its European and global dimensions. It is intended as a companion volume for all those who combine their academic research with wider interests in the promoting of democracy in the period of globalization and under the new pressures of European constitutional politics.

Author : Richard Rose
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 37,53 MB
Release : 1998-10-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780801860386

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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.

Author : K. Beyme
Publisher : Springer
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 14,97 MB
Release : 1996-11-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0230374336

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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.

Author : John D Nagle
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 35,68 MB
Release : 1999-05-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780761956792

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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 democ

Author : Valerie Bunce
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 34,13 MB
Release : 2009-11-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1139483862

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Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World examines three waves of democratic change that took place in eleven different former Communist nations. It draws important conclusions about the rise, development, and breakdown of both democracy and dictatorship in each country, providing a comparative perspective on the post-Communist world. The first democratic wave to sweep this region encompasses the rapid rise of democratic regimes from 1989 to 1992 from the ashes of Communism and Communist states. The second wave arose with accession to the European Union (from 2004 to 2007) and the third, with the electoral defeat of dictators (1996 to 2005) in Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The authors of each chapter in this volume examine both internal and external dimensions of both democratic success and failure.

Author : Harald Wydra
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 34,33 MB
Release : 2007-02-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1139462180

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Before democracy becomes an institutionalised form of political authority, the rupture with authoritarian forms of power causes deep uncertainty about power and outcomes. This book connects the study of democratisation in eastern Europe and Russia to the emergence and crisis of communism. Wydra argues that the communist past is not simply a legacy but needs to be seen as a social organism in gestation, where critical events produce new expectations, memories and symbols that influence meanings of democracy. By examining a series of pivotal historical events, he shows that democratisation is not just a matter of institutional design, but rather a matter of consciousness and leadership under conditions of extreme and traumatic incivility. Rather than adopting the opposition between non-democratic and democratic, Wydra argues that the communist experience must be central to the study of the emergence and nature of democracy in (post-) communist countries.

Author : Dietrich Rueschemeyer
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 46,7 MB
Release : 2015-05-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1317463188

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Since Alexis de Tocqueville first made the linkage in his writings on America, a healthy democracy has been associated with the flourishing of civil society, as measured by popular participation in voluntary and civic activities and the vitality of organizations that mediate between the individual and the state. This volume takes a fresh look at this classic theme in the context of post-communist Eastern Europe, the West European welfare states and the United States, asking: what patterns of participation characterize the new democracies of Eastern Europe?; what levels of civic activism are characteristic of contemporary Western democracies?; what factors account for differences among countries and changing patterns over time?; and what do findings suggest about the prospects for democracy in the 21st century?

Author : Herbert Kitschelt
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 19,21 MB
Release : 1999-08-13
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 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.

Author : Anton Steen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 42,60 MB
Release : 2019-07-18
Category : Education
ISBN : 042951588X

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Published in 1997, this text presents a specific interest in analyzing the role of the elites as a key factor for democratic rule and policy changes. In order to put the elites in perspective the author has also conducted opinion surveys asking some of the same questions among representative samples of the populations in the three countries. Comparing these three rather similar states gives possibilities for singling out conditions for specific national developments in elite structure and policies.