Post-Communist Democratization: Political Discourses Across Thirteen Countries

by John S. Dryzek , Leslie Templeman Holmes

• ISBN13: 9780521806640
• ISBN10: 052180664X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Democracy is not just a matter of constitutions, parliaments, elections, parties and the rule of law. In order to see if or how democracy works, we must attend to what people make of it, and what they think they are doing as they engage with politics, or as politics engages them. This book examines the way democracy and democratization are thought about and lived by people in China, Russia and eleven other countries in the post-communist world. It shows how democratic politics (and sometimes authoritarian politics) work in these countries, and generates insights into the prospects for different kinds of political development. The authors explore the implications for what is probable and possible in terms of trajectories of political reform, and examine four roads to democratization: liberal, republican, participatory and statist. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, political theory and post-communist studies.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Preface	ix
A note on authorship credit	xii
Part I: Introduction	1	(30)
The discourses of democratic transition	3	(17)
Methodology	20	(11)
Part II: Pre-transition countries	31	(46)
China	33	(24)
Yali Peng
Yugoslavia	57	(20)
Sinisa Nikolin
Part III: Halting transitions	77	(54)
Belarus	79	(13)
Russia	92	(22)
Tatiana Rogovskaia
Ukraine	114	(17)
Victor Hohots
Kyrylo Loukerenko
Part IV: Transition torn by war	131	(40)
Armenia	133	(14)
Georgia	147	(11)
Moldova	158	(13)
Part V: Late developers	171	(52)
Slovakia	173	(17)
Stefan Auer
Antoaneta Dimitrova
Romania	190	(16)
Bogdan Chiritoiu
Bulgaria	206	(17)
Antoaneta Dimitrova
Part VI: Trailblazers	223	(30)
Poland	225	(15)
Czechia	240	(13)
Part VII: Conclusions	253	(21)
Differences that matter -- and those that do not	255	(19)
References	274	(17)
Index	291