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Democratization and the European Union
This book examines in depth the impact of the EU on aspects of the quality of democracy in eight selected post-communist countries. Considering both the political and legal aspects of the dynamics among institutions and focussing on inter-institutional accountability, the book analyses how constitutional designs have been effectively implemented to achieve this, and to what extent this was the result of EU action.
In order to make a comparative assessment of the EU on democracies, the book features detailed case studies according to their different status vis-à-vis the EU, including older new member states: Poland and Hungary; newer new member states: Romania and Bulgaria; potential candidates: Albania and Serbia; and neighbour and remote neighbour states: Ukraine and Armenia. Each chapter addresses a range of dimensions and most relevant domains of inter-institutional accountability, that is: executive-legislative relationships; constitutional justice; decentralisation and regionalism; and the role of ombudsman or other relevant authorities.
Seeking to assess how important the role of the EU has been in influencing the modes and characteristic of democracies and fundamental rights established in these regions, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, EU politics, Post-communist studies and democratization studies.
Leonardo Morlino is Professor of Political Science at the Istituto di Scienze Umane, Florence, Italy and President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
Wojciech Sadurski is Challis professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Sydney, Australia.
1. Introduction Leonardo Morlino and Wojciech Sadurski Part 1: \"Old-new\" Member States 2. Poland: EU Driven Democracy? Adam Bodnar 3. Hungary: High Hopes Revisited Renata Uitz Part 2: \"New-new\" Member States 4. Romania: A Personalistic Approach to Accountability Alina Stanciulescu 5. Bulgaria: Discontents and Frustrations of a Newly-Consolidated Democracy Daniel Smilov Part 3: Potential Candidate and Neighbour Countries 6. Serbia in Search of Stability and Accountability Cristina Dallara and Irena Marceta 7. Albania and its Struggle to Consolidate Democracy Darinka Piqani 8. Ukraine: A Constitutional Design Between Façade Democracy and Effective Transformation? Oleksandr Serdiuk and Roman Petrov 9. Armenia: Constitutional Design, Accountability and European Integration Armen Mazmanyan 10. Conclusions Leonardo Morlino and Wojciech Sadurski. Bibliography
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Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe
In societies divided on ethnic and religious lines, problems of democracy are magnified – particularly where groups are mobilized into parties. With the principle of majority rule, minorities should be less willing to endorse democratic institutions where their parties persistently lose elections. While such problems should also hamper transitions to democracy, several diverse Eastern European states have formed democracies even under these conditions. In this book, Sherrill Stroschein argues that sustained protest and contention by ethnic Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia brought concessions on policies that they could not achieve through the ballot box, in contrast to Transcarpathia, Ukraine. In Romania and Slovakia, contention during the 1990s made each group accustomed to each other's claims and aware of the degree to which each could push its own. Ethnic contention became a de facto deliberative process that fostered a moderation of group stances, allowing democratic consolidation to slowly and organically take root.
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'From Solidarity to Geopolitics' : support for democracy among Postcommunist states
\"This book theorizes a mechanism underlying regime-change waves, the deliberate efforts of diffusion entrepreneurs to spread a particular regime and regime-change model across state borders. Why do only certain states and nonstate actors emerge as such entrepreneurs? Why, how, and how effectively do they support regime change abroad? To answer these questions, the book studies the entrepreneurs behind the third wave of democratization, with a focus on the new eastern European democracies - members of the European Union. The study finds that it is not the strongest democracies nor the democracies trying to ensure their survival in a neighborhood of nondemocracies that become the most active diffusion entrepreneurs. It is, instead, the countries where the organizers of the domestic democratic transitions build strong solidarity movements supporting the spread of democracy abroad that do. The book also draws parallels between their activism abroad and their experiences with democratization and democracy assistance at home\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Social Capital and the Transition to Democracy
The concept of social capital has been used by political scientists to explain both the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe and the decline of social cohesion in Western societies. This edited collection presents the latest quantitative research on how post-communist countries are adapting to Western models of society. The book combines theoretical and institutional analysis with detailed case-studies looking at Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and the former East Germany.
Gabriel Badescu is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Political at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Informal politics in post-Communist Europe : political parties, clientelism, and state capture
\"This book offers a fascinating, thought-provoking and ground-breaking study of post-communist political life. It is published just as the countries of Central and Eastern Europe mark 30 years since gaining freedom and have embarked on the path of democracy. This book 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. The unique post-communist transition is observed as a specific historical moment of disorder, offering a window of opportunity for the large-scale exploitation of public resources in the sense of a kind of \"Klondike Gold Rush.\" Phenomena of corruption, clientelism, patronage, party capture and state capture are topical themes that are deeply explored. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Central and Eastern European politics, democratisation, transitional societies, clientelism, party systems and more broadly of comparative and European politics\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Finding the Right Place on the Map
Finding the Right Place on the Map is an international comparison of the media systems and democratic performance of the media in post-communist countries. From a comparative east-west perspective, this groundbreaking volume analyzes issues of commercial media, social exclusion, and consumer capitalism. With topics ranging from the civil society approach, public service broadcasting, fandom, and the representation of poverty, each chapter considers a different aspect of the trends and problems surrounding the international media. This volume is an up-to-date overview of what media transformation has meant for post-communist countries in the past two decades.
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Green Barons, Force-of-Circumstance Entrepreneurs, Impotent Mayors
An exemplary study in comparative contemporary history, this monograph looks at rural change in six countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. In the 1990s most of these nations experienced a fourth radical restructuring of agricultural relations in the twentieth century, and all went through the dramatic transition from communism to capitalism. The author analyzes attempts to activate democracy on a local level and recreate farming structures and non-agricultural businesses based on private ownership and private enterprise. He describes the emergence of a new business class that seeks to dominate local government structures; the recuperation of former communist farming entities by former managers; and the transformation of peasants into rural citizens, who nevertheless remain the underdogs. Swain exposes common features as well as specific divergences between the six countries; he portrays the winners, losers and engineers of transformations. He situates his themes in a wider context that will appeal to a broad range of social scientists and historians.
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