The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe since 1989
* Acknowledgements * Maps * Introduction: The Shock of the New * 1. Different Paths on an Open Road: Economic and Social Change * 2. In Praise of Ethnic Cleansing? National Struggles * 3. Peeling the Past: Nostalgia and Punishment * 4. Portraits in Hubris: Democratic Politics * 5. A New Europe: The East in the West * Conclusion: The Edge of History * Notes * Index
Dilemmas of Justice in Eastern Europe's Democratic Transitions
A critical assessment by eminent legal and political science experts in the field, this book examines the two key factors which have deeply affected the position of national parliaments in European integrations: the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. Structured in three parts, the book will address the question, 'Do national parliaments exhibit resilience or resignation in these changed politico-legal and socio-economic circumstances in the EU?' Part I investigates the impact of the aforementioned factors against the theoretical concepts of constitutionalism and democratic legitimacy. Part II evaluates the changing nature of parliamentary functions, and Part III appraises the evolving relationships between national parliaments and national governments, national courts, and EU institutions, in addition to surveying the emerging patterns of interparliamentary cooperation. This interdisciplinary collection yields novel insights into how the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union and the pursuance of new initiatives for parliamentary action impact the shape and nature of EU democracy.... Download ebook, read file pdf Resilience or Resignation?
The political economy of protest and patience : East European and Latin American transformations compared
Why did Eastern Europeans protest less about the brutal social consequences of systematic change than the people of Latin America a decade earlier? Why has the regionwide authoritarian or populist turnabout not occured? Why has democracy in these countries proved to be crisis-proof? In what ways has the economic crisis impacted on the politics of the region? In addressing these questions, this text uses a comparative analysis of the structures, institutions, cultures, and actors shaping both the Eastern European and the Latin American transformations, and argues that structural, institutional, and cultural factors have put a brake on destabilizing collective actions and have paved the way for the emergence of the enduring, low-level equilibrium between incomplete democracy and imperfect market economy which seems set to characterize the Eastern European experience for the foreseeable future.