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Papers that established the field
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O’Donnell, Guillermo (Spring 2001) “Democratic Theory and Comparative Politics,” Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 36, N. 1, pp. 1-64.
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Guillermo O’Donnell offers conceptual insights into democratic theory with specific regard to new and emerging democracies. He criticizes the “one size fits all” approach to the study of emerging democracies, gives an overview of existing definitions of democracy and defines democracy as a political regime, following Schumpeterian tradition. However, he deems such understanding of democracy too restrictive and addresses major lacuna in it. Therefore, he introduces the concept of individual agency and looks at democracy in relation to the state, focusing on the state qua legal system. Finally, he adds the social aspect to the concept arguing that a degree of “democraticness” of the overall social context is also important. Finally, O’Donnell offers some practical comparative excurses.
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Schedler, Andreas (Spring 2001) “Measuring Democratic Consolidation,” Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 36, N. 1, pp. 66 – 92.
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Andreas Schedler discusses different meanings of democratic consolidation and gives an overview of theories predicting the probability of survival or breakdown of democratic regimes. In a very broad sense, Schedler defines “consolidated” democracy as one that is stable and likely to endure into the future. He describes three theories, behavioral, attitudinal and structural, based on different set of assumptions and identifying different foundations of a “consolidated” democracy. On the basis of an analysis of Latin America experiences, he concludes that behavioral theory best predicts the outcome of democratic transition.
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Koesel, Karrie J. and Baker,Peter J., “Measuring ‘Polyarchy Plus’: Tracking the Quality of Democratization in Eastern Europe, 1992-2000,” Paper prepared for Presentation at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, August 30 – September 02, 2001, San Francisco.
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In their article Karrie Koesel and Peter Baker aim at proving that the quality of democracy varies both across cases and over time. For this purpose, they use a scale first presented by Coppedge and Reinicke, Measuring Polyarchy, and apply it to thirteen formerly communist countries in Eastern Europe, focusing on three principal attributes of democracy: contestation, inclusiveness and quality of governance. As a result, Koesel and Baker present a comprehensive and in-depth study on the quality of democracy and existing democratic trends in Eastern Europe.
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Levitski, Steven and Way, Lucan, “Autocracy by Democratic Rules: The Dynamics of Competitive Authoritarianism in the Post-Cold War Era,” Paper prepared for Presentation at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, August 28-31, 2002, Boston.
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The article brings attention to mixed or hybrid regimes, which are said to significantly proliferate after the end of the Cold War and to be the most “popular” political regime among developing countries. It studies one type of hybrid regime, called competitive autocracies, as they display façade democratic elements but do not satisfy standard criteria for democracy. The article identifies three factors having decisive influence on the endurance of such regimes: incumbents’ organizational capacity to retain power and isolate opposition, organizational capacity of opposition, and closeness or/and dependences on Western governments and institutions. Twelve competitive autocracies from Africa, Central Europe, the Former Soviet Union, Latin America, and East Asia are examined.
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Crawford, Beverly and Lijphart, Arend, “Old Legacies, New Institutions: Explaining Political and Economic Trajectories in Post-Communist Regimes. Introduction,” University of California International and Area Studies Digital Collection, Research Series #96, 1997.
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The article explores why post-communist countries from Eastern Europe have taken divergent paths towards political and economic liberalization. For this purposes, Beverly Crawford and Arend Lijphart present two competing theoretical approaches, the “legacies of the past” and “imperatives of liberalization,” and suggest that the combination of these approaches explains the variation in success and degree of liberalization in Eastern Europe. Crawford and Lijpart conclude that the immediate context can be decisive for past communist legacies playing or not playing a role. The immediate context includes such “imperatives of liberalization” as international support for liberalizers, hegemony of liberal norms in political debate and dominance of new institutions.
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Kolodko, Grzegorz W., “Ten Years of Postsocialist Transition: the Lessons for Policy Reforms,” The World Bank, Working Paper 2095.
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Grzegorz Kolodko discusses the particularities of postsocialist transition in countries of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and shows that the Washington Consensus policies, applied to these countries, lacks crucial elements such as careful assessment of regional context, institution building measures, improvement of corporate governance of the state sector. He urges to modify the existing consensus, introducing necessary changes, in order to promote effective economic liberalization in the discussed countries.
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Major reports of international agencies
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European Commission, Enlargement Package 2005
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EC's Enlargement Package 2005 includes Summary papers and Comprehensive Monitoring Reports on the state of preparedness for EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania, Strategy Paper on candidate and potential candidate countries, Progress Reports on Croatia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo, as well as Opinion on the application from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for membership of the European Union.
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OSCE/ODIHR, Election Observation - A decade of monitoring elections: the people and the practice, 29 November 2005
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This publication provides an overview of the history and development of OSCE election monitoring. It looks at the reasons for observing elections, who observers are, where they come from, and how an election observation mission works in practice.
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OSCE/ODIHR, Statement of preliminary findings and conclusions on the presidential election in Kazakhstan, 4 December 2005
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The OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission assessed the presidential election in Kazakhstan, 4 December 2005 in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments for democratic elections, other international standards, and national legislation. The preliminary findings and conclusions are now available.
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OSCE/ODIHR, Statement of preliminary findings and conclusions on the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, 6 November 2005
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The OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission was deployed to observe the 6 November 2005 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. The preliminary findings and conclusions are now available.
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EURASIANET Special Feature, AZERBAIJAN: ELECTIONS 2005.
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This Special Feature is dedicated to the 6 November 2005 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. It provides news and analitical articles on the elections, as well as relevant background and statistical data.
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Council of Europe, Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), Second Round Reform Evaluation on Croatia, December 2005.
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The Report indicates that Croatia has made considerable progress in the field of legislative and institutional reform. Detailed legal provisions dealing with the recovery of proceeds of corruption are in place, reform of the civil service is under way, and corporate criminal liability was introduced in 2004. However, the effectiveness of the existing legal framework could be increased and follow-up in terms of implementation is needed. It is recommended to provide for a wider use of confiscation of the proceeds of corruption, to strengthen co-operation of the bodies involved in the detection of corruption offences, and to modernize the system of registration of companies. Moreover the report addresses the need to assess the effectiveness of corruption prevention policies in public administration and to define clearly the legal framework within which public officials must exercise their functions.
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Transparency International, The 2005 Global Corruption Barometer, December 2005
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The 2005 Global Corruption Barometer prepared for International Anti-Corruption Day 2005 reveals alarming information.
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Amnesty International. Romania. Report 2005.
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Amnesty International. Romania. Report 2005.
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Reviews of the literature in the given field
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Rudolf L Tõkés. "Transitology": Global Dreams and Post-Communist Realities.” Central Europe Review, Vol 2, No 10, 13 March 2000.
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This article provides a careful overview of existing approaches in transition studies.
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