Beyond Post-Communist Studies : Political Science and the New Democracies of Europe.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Chapter One: Going Beyond Post-Communist Studies -- Post-Communist Studies and Democratic Consolidation -- Paradigms in Communist Studies -- Democratic Consolidation -- Democratic Consolidation's Research Agenda -- Looking Ahead -- Chapter Two: The Study of Post-Communist Politics -- Stateness -- Democracy and the Market -- Bringing the State In -- Strategic Choice and Post-Communist Studies -- Path Dependency and Post-Communist Studies -- Institutionalism and Post-Communist Studies -- Contributions to the Agenda -- What We Are Not Asking -- Chapter Three: The Missing Agenda -- Bringing Society Back In -- The Distribution of "Democratic " Values -- Civil Society -- Social Movements -- The Rule of Law -- A Usable State Bureaucracy -- Issue Areas Outside the Agenda of Democratic Consolidation -- Principal-Agent Problems -- Local Government -- Institutional Development -- What Is To Be Done? -- Chapter Four: Reformulating Democratic Consolidation -- Transition Theory -- Toward a Theory of Consolidation -- A Theory of Democratic Consolidation -- Weakening and Increasing Competing Forces -- Increasing Institutional Involvement -- Further Explicating the Theory -- Implications -- Applying the Theory -- Russia -- Lithuania -- Chapter Five: Imagining Post-Consolidation Studies -- Fundamentals of Rational Choice -- Spatial Analysis -- The Median Voter Theorem -- Legislative Roll-Call Vote Analysis -- Legislative Committee Systems -- Relations with a President -- Presidential Vetoes -- Presidential Appointments -- The Courts as Political Players -- Analysis of the Party System -- Rules Matter -- Principal-Agent Problems -- Committee Systems -- Legislative Oversight -- Implications.

Chapter Six: Further Extending the Post-Consolidation Agenda -- The Majority Cycling Problem -- Legislative Agenda -- Cabinet Formation -- The Portfolio Allocation Model -- Explaining Lithuanian Cabinet Formation, 2000-2001 -- Chapter Seven: Some Further Theoretical Considerations (with Jan Weiss) -- Toward a Formal Model of an Unconsolidated Democracy -- A Formal Model of Democratic Consolidation -- A Concluding Word -- Notes -- A Short Bibliography of Rational-Choice Literature Arranged by Subject -- Index.

This text makes the case that several East Central European countries have emerged as full consolidated democracies. As such, they may be integrated into the mainstream of political science research, and not consigned to a transitional category encompassing countries that are not democratic at all.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.