Democracy After Communism

by Diamond, Larry Jay; Plattner, Marc F.

• ISBN13: 9780801870767
• ISBN10: 0801870763
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-21
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The last quarter of the twentieth century was marked by two dramatic political trends that altered many of the world's regimes: the global resurgence of democracy and the collapse of communism. Was the process that brought down communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union fundamentally different from the process that gave birth to new democracies in other regions of the world? Were the transitions away from communism mostly like or mostly unlike the transitions away from authoritarianism that took place elsewhere? Is the challenge of building and consolidating democracy under postcommunist conditions unique, or can one apply lessons learned from other new democracies? The essays collected in this volume explore these questions, while tracing how the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have fared in the decade following the fall of communism. Contributors: Anders ?slund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.; Leszek Balcerowicz, Warsaw School of Economics; Archie Brown, Oxford University and St. Antony's College; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Johns Hopkins University, a former U.S. national security advisor; Valerie Bunce, Cornell University; Nadia Diuk, National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C.; M. Steven Fish, University of California--Berkeley; Charles H. Fairbanks Jr., the Johns Hopkins University; Bronislaw Geremek, former foreign minister of Poland; John Higley, University of Texas at Austin; Judith Kullberg, University of Michigan--Ann Arbor; Mart Laar, prime minister of Estonia; Michael McFaul, Stanford University; Ghia Nodia, Tbilisi State University; Jan Pakulski, University of Tasmania in Australia; Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow; Jacques Rupnik, College of Europe in Bruges; Lilia Shevtsova, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.; Aleksander Smolar, Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris; G.M. Tamas formerly of Georgetown University; Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland at College Park; Grigory Yavlinsky, member of the Russian State Duma (parliament).

Author Biography

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and co-editor of the Journal of Democracy. Marc F. Plattner is editor of the Journal of Democracy at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Marc F. Plattner
I. The Exit from Communism
How Different Are Postcommunist Transitions?	3	(15)
Ghia Nodia
Comparing East and South	18	(15)
Valerie Bunce
The Persistence of Postcommunist Elites	33	(15)
John Higley
Judith Kullberg
Jan Pakulski
Civil Society after Communism	48	(15)
Aleksander Smolar
Understanding Postcommunist Transitions	63	(15)
Leszek Balcerowicz
Estonia's Success Story	78	(6)
Mart Laar
The Postcommunist Wars	84	(19)
Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr.
II. The East European Experience
The Postcommunist Divide	103	(6)
Jacques Rupnik
Europe Transformed	109	(6)
Richard Rose
Reassessing the Revolutions of 1989	115	(5)
Vladimir Tismaneanu
The Transformation of Central Europe	120	(6)
Bronistaw Geremek
Victory Defeated	126	(6)
G.M. Tamas
The International Context	132	(15)
Jacques Rupnik
A Diverging Europe	147	(14)
Richard Rose
History and Memory: The Revolutions of 1989--91	161	(18)
Aleksander Smolar
III. The Post-Soviet Experience
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back	179	(15)
Michael McFaul
The Primacy of History and Culture	194	(7)
Zbigniew Brzezinski
The Impact of Nationalism	201	(8)
Ghia Nodia
From Democratization to ``Guided Democracy,''	209	(7)
Archie Brown
The Advantages of Radical Reform	216	(8)
Anders Åslund
Disillusionment in the Caucasus and Central Asia	224	(8)
Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr.
Sovereignty and Uncertainty in Ukraine	232	(8)
Nadia Diuk
Russia's Hybrid Regime	240	(6)
Lilia Shevtsova
Putin's Path	246	(8)
M. Steven Fish
Going Backwards	254	(8)
Grigory Yavlinsky
A Mixed Record, an Uncertain Future	262	(9)
Michael McFaul
Index	271