The authors of this book, scholars from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraina, Kirghizia and Poland, seek to answer the question, in what way the Westeuropean and postcommunist countries respond to the challenges posed to them by democratization in Central and Eastern Europe and European constitutional politics and policymaking. New democracies necessarily pose a challenge to non-democratic states, because they liberated themselves from the totalitarian regime. They pose a challenge for the old liberal democracies too, because they try to compromise individual interests and freedoms with traditional prepolitical and political group identities. But just the model of democracy can be followed in many non-Western countries which aspire to establish a democratic order. This book raises the questions that are particularly significant to the present-day political practice in its European and global dimensions. It is intended as a companion volume for all those who combine their academic research with wider interests in the promoting of democracy in the period of globalization and under the new pressures of European constitutional politics.

The Editor: Tadeusz Buksi¿ski is Director of the Department of Philosophy at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland), Chair of Social and Political Philosophy. He has published numerous books.

Contents: Boguslaw Bukowski: The Liberal Democracy in the Contemporary World - Erich Fröschl: The «Deformed Society»: Market Radicalism and its Effects on Democracy - Josef Melchior: Democratic Paradoxes of Constitutional Politics in the European Union: From the Constitutional to the Lisbon Treaty - Manfried Welan: Emergence and Development of a Stable Democracy. The Austrian Example - Dieter Segert: Democracy and Populism: Insights from Post-Socialist Research - Tadeusz Buksinski: Democracy between Interests and Identities (The Case of Poland) - Piotr W. Juchacz: On the Post-Schumpeterian «Competitive Managerial Model of Local Democracy» as Perceived by the Elites of the Local Government of Wielkopolska - Sándor Gallai: Hungary: A Democratic Polity Under Challenge - Ondrej Císar/Lubomír Kopecek: Czech Democracy, Politics, and Society from 1989 to Present - Hennadii Korzhov: A Long Journey to Democracy? Ukraine's Lessons in its Post-Soviet Transformation - Krzysztof Brzechczyn: In the Trap of Post-Socialist Stagnation: On Political Development of the Belarusian Society in the Years 1986-2006 - Amazan Idinov: Special Features of Democracy and Corruption in Kyrgyzstan - Nona Kubanychbek: Sustainable Development of Kyrgyzstan: Past Achievements and Future Challenges - Marek Sikora: Democratisation of the episteme - Evanghelos A. Moutsopoulos: The Universitary Asylum and its Violations.