Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment

Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment PDF Author: Anca Pusca
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526135299
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book develops a fresh and challenging perspective on the transition from communism to capitalism. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of material and texts, it argues that transition and democratisation studies should turn their attention towards processes of illusion formation and disillusionment as key to understanding the shift from one ideological framework to another. The author provides alternative approaches to otherwise classical sites of examination of social change – such as revolutions and the emergence of civil society – and proposes a number of new possible sites by analysing the politics of self-reflection, the element of shock inherent in any transition and the role of visual narratives in negotiating change. The chapters are inspired by unique interviews and discussions with the leaders of the Timisoara Revolution, the Group of Social Dialogue – the first civil society organisation in post-communist Romania, the leading author of the 'Presidential Report Analysing the Communist Dictatorship in Romania' and an innovative group of photographers tracing the Romanian transition through images.

Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment

Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment PDF Author: Anca Pusca
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526135299
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book

Book Description
This book develops a fresh and challenging perspective on the transition from communism to capitalism. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of material and texts, it argues that transition and democratisation studies should turn their attention towards processes of illusion formation and disillusionment as key to understanding the shift from one ideological framework to another. The author provides alternative approaches to otherwise classical sites of examination of social change – such as revolutions and the emergence of civil society – and proposes a number of new possible sites by analysing the politics of self-reflection, the element of shock inherent in any transition and the role of visual narratives in negotiating change. The chapters are inspired by unique interviews and discussions with the leaders of the Timisoara Revolution, the Group of Social Dialogue – the first civil society organisation in post-communist Romania, the leading author of the 'Presidential Report Analysing the Communist Dictatorship in Romania' and an innovative group of photographers tracing the Romanian transition through images.

After the Revolution

After the Revolution PDF Author: Jessica Greenberg
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804791171
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
What happens to student activism once mass protests have disappeared from view, and youth no longer embody the political frustrations and hopes of a nation? After the Revolution chronicles the lives of student activists as they confront the possibilities and disappointments of democracy in the shadow of the recent revolution in Serbia. Greenberg's narrative highlights the stories of young student activists as they seek to define their role and articulate a new form of legitimate political activity, post-socialism. When student activists in Serbia helped topple dictator Slobodan Milosevic on October 5, 2000, they unexpectedly found that the post-revolutionary period brought even greater problems. How do you actually live and practice democracy in the wake of war and the shadow of a recent revolution? How do young Serbians attempt to translate the energy and excitement generated by wide scale mobilization into the slow work of building democratic institutions? Greenberg navigates through the ranks of student organizations as they transition their activism from the streets back into the halls of the university. In exploring the everyday practices of student activists—their triumphs and frustrations—After the Revolution argues that disappointment is not a failure of democracy but a fundamental feature of how people live and practice it. This fascinating book develops a critical vocabulary for the social life of disappointment with the aim of helping citizens, scholars, and policymakers worldwide escape the trap of framing new democracies as doomed to failure.

Where Did the Revolution Go?

Where Did the Revolution Go? PDF Author: Donatella della Porta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316802582
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Where Did the Revolution Go? considers the apparent disappearance of the large social movements that have contributed to democratization. Revived by recent events of the Arab Spring, this question is once again paramount. Is the disappearance real, given the focus of mass media and scholarship on electoral processes and 'normal politics'? Does it always happen, or only under certain circumstances? Are those who struggled for change destined to be disappointed by the slow pace of transformation? Which mechanisms are activated and deactivated during the rise and fall of democratization? This volume addresses these questions through empirical analysis based on quantitative and qualitative methods (including oral history) of cases in two waves of democratization: Central Eastern European cases in 1989 as well as cases in the Middle East and Mediterranean region in 2011.

Central and Eastern Europe After Transition

Central and Eastern Europe After Transition PDF Author: Wojciech Sadurski
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131716900X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
How have national identities changed, developed and reacted in the wake of transition from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe? Central and Eastern Europe After Transition defines and examines new autonomous differences adopted at the state and the supranational level in the post-transitional phase of the post-Communist area, and considers their impact on constitutions, democracy and legal culture. With representative contributions from older and newer EU members, the book provides a broad set of cultural points for reference. Its comparative and interdisciplinary approach includes a useful selection of bibliographical resources specifically devoted to the Central Eastern European countries' transitions.

Transatlantic Democracy Assistance

Transatlantic Democracy Assistance PDF Author: Jan Hornat
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429788576
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The approaches of EU institutions and the US to democracy assistance often vary quite significantly as both actors choose different means and tactics. The nuances in the understandings of democracy on the part of the EU and the US lead to their promotion of models of democratic governance that are often quite divergent and, in some respects, clashing. This book examines the sources of this divergence and by focusing on the role of the actors’ "democratic identity" it aims to explain the observation that both actors use divergent strategies and instruments to foster democratic governance in third countries. Taking a constructivist view, it demonstrates that the history, expectations and experiences with democracy of each actor significantly inform their respective definition of democracy and thus the model of democracy they promote abroad. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in democracy promotion, democratization, political theory, EU and US foreign policy and assistance, and identity research.

The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition

The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition PDF Author: Francesco Cavatorta
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847796907
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The book builds an innovative theoretical framework, through which previously neglected international factors are brought into the analysis of transitions to democracy. The case of Algeria is then explored in great detail. This volume is an important contribution to the literature on democratization and provides an interesting analysis of Algerian politics during the last two decades. More specifically, the book examines how international variables influence the behaviour and activities of Algerian political actors. By bridging the comparative politics and international relations literatures, the book offers a new understanding of the initiation, development and outcome of transitions to democracy. International factors, far from being marginal and secondary, are treated as central explanatory variables. Such external factors were crucial in the Algerian failed transition to democracy, when the attitudes and actions of key international actors shaped the domestic game and its final outcome. In particular, the book explores the controversial role of the Islamic Salvation Front and how its part was perceived abroad. In addition the book argues that international factors significantly contribute to explaining the persistence of authoritarian rule in Algeria, to its integration into the global economy and its co-optation into the war on terror. This book will be useful for scholars and students of processes of democratisation, for Middle East and North Africa specialists and for general readers interested in the role of international actors across the Arab world.

The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe

The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe PDF Author: Kevin McDermott
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526103478
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This important book reassesses a defining historical, political and ideological moment in contemporary history: the 1989 revolutions in central and eastern Europe. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the authors reconsider such crucial themes as the broader historical significance of the 1989 events, the complex interaction between external and internal factors in the origins and outcomes of the revolutions, the impact of the ‘Gorbachev phenomenon’, the West and the end of the Cold War, the political and socio-economic determinants of the revolutionary processes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and the competing academic, cultural and ideological perceptions of the year 1989 as communism gave way to post-communist pluralism in the 1990s and beyond. Concluding that the contentious term ‘revolution’ is indeed apt for the momentous developments in eastern Europe in 1989, this book will be essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and specialists alike.

Beyond the Rhetorics of Compliance

Beyond the Rhetorics of Compliance PDF Author: Anitta M. Hipper
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 365809611X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Anitta M. Hipper examines to what extent and under what conditions the EU's transformative power met with resistance in Romania. The book touches upon a raw nerve for most post-communist societies: justice and anti-corruption reform. Through the use of a context-sensitive approach, it assesses how domestic factors influenced the implementation of EU conditionality towards Romania from 1990 to 2012. Empirical investigations reveal a struggle between various interested parties in complying with EU conditionality. As a result, a complex layer of (non-)compliance emerged and it became a Herculean task to ensure the sustainability of reform by reformist forces within Romania and the EU.

Democracy in crisis

Democracy in crisis PDF Author: Stella Gaon
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847797385
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
This volume explores the political implications of violence and alterity (radical difference) for the practice of democracy, and reformulates the possibility of community that democracy is said to entail. Most significantly, contributors intervene in traditional democratic theory by boldly contesting the widely-held assumption that increased inclusion, tolerance and cultural recognition are democracy's sufficient conditions. Rather than simply inquiring how best to expand the 'demos', they investigate how claims to self-determination, identity and sovereignty are a problem for democracy and how, paradoxically, alterity may be its greatest strength. Drawing largely on the Left, continental tradition, contributions include an appeal to the tension between fear and love in the face of anti-Semitism in Poland, injunctions to rethink the identity-difference binary and the ideal of 'mutual recognition' that dominate liberal-democratic thought, critiques of the canonical 'we' that constitutes the democratic community, and a call for an ethics and a politics of 'dissensus' in democratic struggles against racist and sexist oppression. The authors mobilise some of the most powerful critical insights emerging across the social sciences and humanities – from anthropology, sociology, critical legal studies, Marxism, psychoanalysis and critical race theory and post-colonial studies – to reconsider the meaning and the possibility of 'democracy' in the face of its contemporary crisis. The book will be of direct interest to students and scholars interested in cutting-edge, critical reflection on the empirical phenomenon of increased violence in the West provoked by radical difference, and on theories of radical political change.

Groups, representation and democracy

Groups, representation and democracy PDF Author: Darren Halpin
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847796966
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Whether called pressure groups, NGOs, social movement organisations or organised civil society, the value of ‘groups’ to the policy process, to economic growth, to governance, to political representation and to democracy has always been contested. However, there seems to be a contemporary resurgence in this debate largely centred on their democratising potential: can groups effectively link citizens to political institutions and policy processes? Are groups an antidote to emerging democratic deficits? Or do groups themselves face challenges in demonstrating their legitimacy and representativeness? This book debates the democratic potential and practice of groups; focussing on the vibrancy of internal democracies, and modes of accountability with those who join such groups and to the constituencies they advocate for. It draws on literatures covering national, European and global levels, and presents new empirical material from the UK and Australia