"A useful text and reference book. These essays are at their best in serving both area study and political sociology."--Slavic Review --

The new edition of this market-leading text brings together specially commissioned chapters by a team of top international scholars on the changing politics of this diverse region negotiating the competing pulls of the European Union and post-communist Russia.

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this essential text provides a comprehensive introduction to Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltics and Ukraine. Broad but nuanced, it offers a reader-friendly overview of the globally and regionally significant changes and challenges the region faces. Divided into two parts, the book first presents thematic chapters on key issues, including nationalism and challenges to democratic institutions and practices, the contentious politics of memory, debates over demography and migration in a region with a shrinking population, and Russian efforts to retain regional influence through hard and soft power. The case-study chapters that follow highlight key political developments after communism as well as providing a strong foundation for readers on regional history and the political and economic experiences of the communist years. Each covers the foundational topics of political history, political competition, economic development, social problems, relationships with European institutions, and threats to good governance. For students and specialists alike, this book will be an invaluable resource on this dynamic region of Europe.

The face of Central and Eastern Europe has been dramatically transformed since the collapse of communism. The region faces new challenges, including the needs to find a balance between effective leadership and accountability and to reverse the economic decline of the late communist years. Addressing these concerns and others, Developments in Central and East European Politics 4 brings together specially commissioned chapters by leading scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. The chapters, all of which are new to this edition, focus on key features of the political systems that have emerged following the transition to postcommunist rule and the enlargement of the European Union through 2006. Full attention is given to the pattern of events in individual nations, but the main emphasis is on the framework of politics across the region--constitutions, leadership, parliaments, parties, and electoral systems--and the process of politics, as it is revealed in political participation, civil society, economic change, and the quality of democratic government within and beyond the region. Clearly written and well supported with references and suggestions for further reading, Developments in Central and East European Politics 4 is the ideal guide to the process of change in a group of states that were formerly modeled on the Soviet Union but are now a distinctive and varied presence within a continent that has been redefining its boundaries, its values, its economic systems, and its international allegiances. Contributors. Judy Batt, Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Sarah Birch, Heather Grabbe, Tim Haughton, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Petr Kopecký, Paul G. Lewis, Frances Millard, Cas Mudde, D. Mario Nuti, Mark Pittaway, Ray Taras, Stephen White, Andrew Wilson, Kataryna Wolczuk

Fourteen specialists of Central and Eastern European politics explore memory policies and politics by examining how and why contested memories are constantly reactivated in the former Soviet bloc. The book explores how new social and political actors can challenge the traditional narratives about the past produced by state bodies.

This book assesses the underpinning role ‘references to identity’ played and continue to play as the powerful mobilising force in domestic politics across the East European region stretching from Estonia to Bulgaria. The EU membership of postcommunist states was to ensure stability, prevent conflict and eventually guarantee equality of all citizens regardless of their political preferences or ethnic identities. However, the promotion of such norms and values has been secondary to consolidation of state institutions and the societies they serve around ethnocentric narratives of states’ core ethnic groups. The sequel of financial, then ‘refugee’ crises has further dented the appeal of the EU’s norms across the region. Even the rhetoric commitment to respect cultural diversity and human rights has been promptly replaced with references to identity and interests of politically relevant groups. Yet, nativist and populist rhetoric has been the staple of politics since before the EU accession. The chapters in this edited volume zoom in on politics which forge and live-off their societies’ preoccupation with ethnocentric narratives, vesting national identity with persistent relevance and considerable weight across the postcommunist region. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, East European Politics.

For Global Issues/Introduction to Comparative Politics courses at the freshman/sophomore level, and for Central and Eastern European Comparative Politics/Politics of Post-Communism courses at the upper division undergraduate level. Providing powerful insights into the factors which have affected the economic, political, and social development in Central and Eastern Europe's socialist states since the fall of the Berlin Wall, this one-of-a-kind text offers a broad yet detailed comparative study of the politics of Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland and then uses this information to examine the success or failure of these states in reaching their declared ideological and policy goals. Using a clear-cut organizational framework that is interdisciplinary in approach, it gives students a general introduction to each region; helps them understand why states which shared a common political legacy for 45 years can be so different today; and, most importantly, helps them draw comparative conclusions to determine what is universal and what is incidental.

In this detailed survey of European communist systems. Dr. Hazan examines the formal structure of East European politics and the functions of party organizations as the true centers of power. Drawing on extensive primary sources and illustrations from the most recent period of Eastern Europe’s history, he analyzes the role of the entire government infrastructure in consolidating the strength of the Communist party. He also focuses on party congresses, internal elections, organizational and personnel changes, and foreign visits against the background of the all-encompassing network of ritual that governs the political process.