PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS FOR DEMOCRATIZATION
The Democracy Project and the Development of Comparative Politics
Historical Legacies of Regional Democratization
PART TWO: THE EMERGING POLITICS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACIES
Conceptualizations of Transition
Early Dichotomies and Evolving Complexities
Civil Society
Using the New Freedoms
Concepts of Economic Restructuring
Interest Group Articulation in Post-Communism
Political Party Formation and Electoral Competition
Elites and Citizens
Elite Democracy and Citizen Participation
PART THREE: REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS OF DEMOCRATIZATION
Regional Comparisons of Democratization
Southern Europe - Lessons from Another European Region
Structuring Executive Power in Emerging Democracies
Warnings from Latin America
Economics First, Then (Maybe) Politics
The Challenge of the East Asian Model
East-Central Europe, the EU and Globalizing Capitalism
What Kind of Democratization, What Kind of Democracy?

This wide-ranging overview of the processes of democratization in post-Communist Europe, places the transitions in East-Central Europe within a broad European and global context.

The authors begin with a introduction to the concept and theories of democracy and then examine the emerging politics of the new democracies to set the post-Communist transitions in longer-term comparative perspective with earlier and existing processes of democratization in

Southern Europe, Latin America, and East and Southeast Asia. Finally the politics of EU accession are introduced to place the transitions within the wider context of European integration.

Concluding with a summary of recent critiques of modern democracy and

looking toward future theories, this text provides a comprehensive introduction

to what will remain the key contemporary issue for all students of political

science.