This book focuses on one particular aspect of the post-communist transformations in the East-Central European countries. In studying the local government reforms, it evaluates achievements with the traditional yardsticks for local government performance: democracy, efficiency, and autonomy.

This title was first published in 2003. This insightful book examines how the challenge of reunification has been met at the local level in Germany. In doing so, it clarifies a number of central issues about the governance process in modern democratic political systems under strain. A National Challenge at the Local Level first describes who governs and how they govern at the local level. It then reveals the principal underlying political values of both elites and citizens and describes the ways in which they differ. It provides a rational explanation for the differences in these political values, particularly between the two major regions of Germany. Finally, it reveals the basis for the differences in how well local governments perform.

Since Alexis de Tocqueville first made the linkage in his writings on America, a healthy democracy has been associated with the flourishing of civil society, as measured by popular participation in voluntary and civic activities and the vitality of organizations that mediate between the individual and the state. This volume takes a fresh look at this classic theme in the context of post-communist Eastern Europe, the West European welfare states and the United States, asking: what patterns of participation characterize the new democracies of Eastern Europe?; what levels of civic activism are characteristic of contemporary Western democracies?; what factors account for differences among countries and changing patterns over time?; and what do findings suggest about the prospects for democracy in the 21st century?

The book assesses the democratization and marketization in the Visegrad states. It analyses the effectiveness of these emerging government structures at a regional and local level in terms of competencies and resources, makes comparisons with West European experiences at this level, and examines the role of external factors, especially the EU and international financial organisations, in the development of sub-national authorities in these countries.

This book examines local government performance in key areas of social services and economic promotion in eight towns in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia. It dispels the myth that socio-economic 'givens' or inter-governmental systems are key determinants of local development.

This book examines the democratic changes that took place in civil society in Central and Eastern Europe after the break up of the Soviet Union.

Der englischsprachige Band führt ein in die Lokal- und Regionalpolitik der mittel-osteuropäischen Reformländer. Der Band beleuchtet aktuelle Probleme der Kommunal- und Regionalpolitik in den Ländern Mittel-Osteuropas, einschließlich Russlands. Zentral sind Fragen der Beziehungen zwischen zentraler, regionaler und lokaler Politik- und Verwaltungsebene, der lokalen Demokratie und Partizipation sowie Fragen der Verwaltungsmodernisierung.

Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe is the first textbook to survey the course of party developments in eastern Europe as a whole in the post-Communist period. This book relates the specifics of the post-communist situation to the broader picture of the early stages of party development in western Europe and also to contemporary models of party organisation in established democracies. The book includes: · a brief historical introduction to the context of post-communist change · the process of competitive party formation and democratic elections · the development of independent parties; their ideologies, and electoral volatility · the structure and level of organisation developed by new parties · an analysis of stable party systems which have emerged in eastern Europe and the contribution they make to emerging democracies in the region Party Politics in Post-Communist Eastern Europe will be a comprehensive and invaluable resource, accessible to undergraduates of politics and European studies, as well as the non-specialist reader.

This book helps to understand in which ways local governing elites are important for the success or failure of national democratic development. Although we know a great deal about the general importance of civil society and social capital for the development of sustainable democracy, we still know little about what specific local governing qualities or political capital that interact with democratic development. The collected data covers time series of surveys from between 15 to 30 political and administrative leaders in over a hundred middle-sized European and Eurasian cities. The study takes us across the 1980s and 1990s, going from cities in Sweden and the Netherlands - through the Baltic cities - to the cities of Belarus and Russia. The findings show the importance of local political capital based on commitments to core democratic values, informal governance networks, and the significance of initially connecting the community to global, non-economic relationships.

The book aims to complement the existing research on democratic innovations mainly by making unique comparative analyses of the democratic innovations at the local level in selected European post-communist countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Democratic innovations can help overcome political apathy, decreased confidence in democracy and improve efficiency of governance. We traditionally consider cities and municipalities to be cradles of democracy and connect them with deliberations on the further development of democratic theory and political practice. We therefore argue that the local level is a suitable arena and laboratory for both changes of institutional settings within the traditional model of representative democracy, and the structural changes, which concern changing relations between local representatives and citizens.