Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment

Revolution, democratic transition and disillusionment PDF

Author: Anca Pusca

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2018-04-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1526135299

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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

Published: 2014-05-07

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0804791171

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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

Published: 2016-11-28

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1316802582

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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.

After the Arab Uprisings

After the Arab Uprisings PDF

Author: Shamiran Mako

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-07-22

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1108429831

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A holistic and cross-disciplinary approach to understanding why a regional democratic transition did not occur after the Arab Spring protests, this accessible study highlights the salience of regime type, civil society, women's mobilizations, and external intervention across seven countries for undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars.

Central and Eastern Europe After Transition

Central and Eastern Europe After Transition PDF

Author: Wojciech Sadurski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 131716900X

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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

Published: 2018-11-19

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0429788576

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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.

Armenia’s Velvet Revolution

Armenia’s Velvet Revolution PDF

Author: Anna Ohanyan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-09-03

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 178831719X

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In April 2018, Armenia experienced a remarkable popular uprising leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and his replacement by protest leader Nikol Pashinyan. Evoking Czechoslovakia's similarly peaceful overthrow of communism 30 years previously, the uprising came to be known as Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution': a broad-based movement calling for clean government, democracy and economic reform. This volume examines how a popular protest movement, showcasing civil disobedience as a mass strategy for the first time in the post-Soviet space, overcame these unpromising circumstances. Situating the events in Armenia in their national, regional and global contexts, different contributions evaluate the causes driving Armenia's unexpected democratic turn, the reasons for regime vulnerability and the factors mediating a non-violent outcome. Drawing on comparative perspectives with democratic transitions across the world, this book will be essential reading for those interested in the regime dynamics, social movements and contested politics of contemporary Eurasia, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the fields of democracy assistance and human rights in an increasingly multipolar world.

The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition

The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition PDF

Author: Francesco Cavatorta

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2013-07-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1847796907

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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

Published: 2015-11-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1526103478

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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

Published: 2015-04-20

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 365809611X

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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.