Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:12:01.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Transition to Democracy in Central Europe: A Comparative View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Attila Ágh
Attila Ágh
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of Economics, Budapest*
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe has also caused the collapse of old-fashioned studies of Communist systems that subscribed to a simple notion of totalitarian uniformity, or a static belief in the continuance of self-equilibrating cycles within socialist states. To understand what is happening in Central and Eastern Europe today we need to be discriminating in a choice of paradigms. European conceptions of democracy as having a socio-economic as well as political dimension are more relevant than formalist American definitions. Moreover, Europe, in the form of the European Community, is also a much more immediate influence than the United States upon what is happening in Central or Eastern Europe. The transition to democracy in Southern Europe provides encouraging models for ex-Soviet satellites. The failure of Latin American countries to democratize provides warnings, such as the risk that Presidential government can produce dictatorship or instability, a risk that is present in new democracies in Europe too.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 133 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ágh, Attila (1990) Comparative Commission: Toward a Third Generation? Studies in Comparative Communism, Summer.Google Scholar
Ágh, Attila (1990a) The Emergence of the ‘Science of Democracy’ in Hungary and its Impact on the Democratic Transition. Barcelona: I PSA Conference on Democracy and the Development of Political Science, 05.Google Scholar
Ash, Timothy Garton (1990) We the People, The Revolution of '89. Cambridge: Granta Books.Google Scholar
Bunce, Valerie (1990) The Struggle for Liberal Democracy in Eastern Europe. World Policy Journal. Summer, pp. 395–430.Google Scholar
Castañeda, Jorge G. (1990) Latin America and the End of the Cold War. World Policy Journal, Summer, pp. 469–492.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert (1982) Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy, Autonomy vs. Control. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dawisha, Karen (1990) Eastern Europe, Gorbachev and Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
di Palma, Giuseppe (1990) To Craft Democracies: an Essay on Democratic Transitions. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Friedrich, C.J. and Brzezinski, Z. (1967) Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Held, David (1987) Models of Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. (1981) American Politics, the Promise of Disharmony. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. (1981) American Politics, the Promise of Disharmony. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Huntingcon, Samuel P. (1984) Will More Countries Become Democratic? Political Science Quarterly, Summer, pp. 193–218.Google Scholar
Korbonski, Andrzej (1989) Soviet-East European Relations in the 1980s: Continuity and Change, pp. 5–22. In Carnovale, Marco and Potter, William C., eds., Continuity and Change in Soviet-East European Relations, Implications for the West. Boulder, Col.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arcnd (1990) Presidentialism and Majoritarian Democracy: Theoretical Observations. Paper for the A PSA Annual Meeting, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan and Stepan, Alfred (eds) (1978) The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni and Jean, Woodall (1987) Politics and Society in Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Lawrence C. (1989) Redefining Comparative Politics, Promise Versus Performance. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, , Guillermo, , Schmitter, Philippe C. and Whitehead, Laurence (eds) (1986) Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, Vol. 1, Comparative Perspectives, Vol. 2 Southern Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, , Guillermo, (1988) Challenges to Democratization in Brazil. World Policy Journal, Spring, pp. 281–300.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham (1982) Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prins, Gwyn (ed.) (1990) Spring in Winter: the 1989 Revolutions. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Riggs, Fred W. (1988) The Survival of Presidentialism in America. International Political Science Review 9, 4, 247–781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rödel, Ulrich, Frankenbcrg, Gunter and Dubiel, Helmut (1989) Die demokratische Frage. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.Google Scholar
Rollo, J. M. C. et al. (1990) The New Eastern Europe: Western Responses. London: Pinter, for Royal Institute of International Aflairs.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1991) Prime Ministers in Parliamentary Systems. West European Politics, 14, 2, 9–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupnik, Jacques (1989) The Other Europe. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Szajkowski, Bogdan (ed.) (1981) Marxist Governments, A World Survey. London: Macmillan, Vols. 1–3.Google Scholar
Tokés, Rufolk L. (1990) From Post-Communism to Democracy: Party Politics and Free Elections in Hungary. Berg Alfter: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.Google Scholar
White, Stephen, Gardner, John and Schöpflin, George (1980) Communist Political Systems: An Introduction. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
White, Stephen and Nelson, Daniel (eds) (1986) Communist Politics: A Reader. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Stephen (1989) Comparative Communist Politics: Towards the Second Generation. Studies in Comparative Communism, Summer, pp. 209–212.Google Scholar
Wiarda, Howard J. (ed.) (1985) New Directions in Comparative Politics. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar