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Democracy and Democratization
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Democracy and Democratization
Post-Communist Europe in Comparative Perspective



336 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
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.

 
PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS FOR DEMOCRATIZATION
 
The Democracy Project and the Development of Comparative Politics
 
Historical Legacies of Regional Democratization
 
PART TWO: THE EMERGING POLITICS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACIES
 
Conceptualizations of Transition
Early Dichotomies and Evolving Complexities

 
 
Civil Society
Using the New Freedoms

 
 
Concepts of Economic Restructuring
 
Interest Group Articulation in Post-Communism
 
Political Party Formation and Electoral Competition
 
Elites and Citizens
Elite Democracy and Citizen Participation

 
 
PART THREE: REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS OF DEMOCRATIZATION
 
Regional Comparisons of Democratization
Southern Europe - Lessons from Another European Region

 
 
Structuring Executive Power in Emerging Democracies
Warnings from Latin America

 
 
Economics First, Then (Maybe) Politics
The Challenge of the East Asian Model

 
 
East-Central Europe, the EU and Globalizing Capitalism
What Kind of Democratization, What Kind of Democracy?

 

`This is a broad-ranging survey. It goes well beyond its briefof democratization in these societies or, at least, it interprets this particular brief very widely, so that a range of economic and social changes are also brought into consideration. The series of international and inter-regional comparisons also give the book breadth. The opening sections on comparitive approaches and the historical background will make the book more accessible to the uninitiated reader.... It would serve as a useful introduction to understanding recent political change in the region' - Democratization

John D Nagle

Alison Mahr

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