Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
When democratization developed in America, the role and size of government was much different. Government in the twentieth century is a much more complicated operation. Reorganization of the various institutions that had developed under prior governments had to be transformed into institutions operated under new sets of rules. Suddenly, decisions and policies were not made based on an ideology and conflicting interests had to be considered. Suddenly, politicians and administrators in these new Eastern European democracies were forced to learn how to negotiate. With the adoption of democracy, differing points-of-view and differing policies had to now be considered and the bureaucrats who had formerly operated these institutions and agencies were provided with choices and political pressures that were never present prior to democratization.
The problems inherent in the democratization of Eastern Europe were considerable but the basic problem was that such nations did so backwards. These nations introduced democratic concepts such as competitive elections and political parties before establishing the basic institutions of democratic states such as the rule of law and government accountability. Because these Eastern European governments were democratized in a backwards fashion they are incomplete. The citizens of the nations located in Eastern Europe simply did not possess the skills and experience required for democracy to be successful. They lacked the ability to engage in political discourse, the ability to compromise, and the lack of an interest in...
As a result of these factors, democratization in Eastern Europe met with mixed results and in many nations frustrations set in which served to jeopardize the governments that were organized. Individuals who had learned to rely on a government that dictated every aspect of their lives were suddenly forced to make determinations individually. This added to their frustrations.
The adoption of a democratic form of government in America was an easy and natural process that met with little opposition. The various American governments were formed from the bottom up and there were no prior impediments. In Eastern Europe, however, years of prior forms of government made the transition to democracy more difficult.
Diamond, Larry. Democracy after Communism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
-- . "Democracy's Third Wave Today." Current History (2011): 299-307.
Ekman, Joakim. "Communist nostalgia and the consolidation of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe." Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics (2005): 354-374.
Freeman, Michael. "The perils of democratization: Nationalism, markets, and human rights." Human Rights Review (2000): 33-50.
Rose-Ackerman, Susan. "From Elections to Democracy in Central Europe: Public Participation and the Role of Civil Society." Eastern European Politics & Societies (2007): 31-47.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Signet Classics, 2001.
Democratization in Eastern Europe
Rose-Ackerman, Susan. "From Elections to Democracy in Central Europe: Public Participation and the Role of Civil Society." Eastern European Politics & Societies (2007): 31-47.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Signet Classics, 2001.
Democratization in Eastern Europe
Soviet Union Trade Blocs Trade blocs (pacts) and mutual economic associations of interest are hardly new tactical weapons on the nation-state board of marketing strategies. They have been used across the eons for one or another purpose. Leaders of countries of all types have attempted to execute their own versions of this kind of economic vitality model, even when such cooperation forces them to reach outside of their controlling economic philosophies.
S.S.R. The movement began as strike action in protest against rising food prices. Lech Walesa acted as the leader of the Solidarity movement, unifying the public against government abuses. Although the movement was outlawed, and several workers imprisoned as a result, Gorbachev's reforms changed this. It was once again considered legal, and the movement translated itself as a social gain for citizens in protest against a government that, at the
In an unprecedented move, Khrushchev denounced many of Stalin's excesses and set about changing Soviet policy towards the developing world. This change, some call it flexibility, was the branch the Soviets offered to developing countries, like Cuba. Looking around and seeing the alienated or disenfranchized, Khrushchev felt the time was right to solidify alliances with anticolonialists in Ghana, the Congo, and especially, Cuba (Hopf). After the Bay of Pigs fiasco,
Soviet Union and Stalin Era Understanding of Stalin and Soviet Union The Soviet economic system persisted for around 60 years and even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the basic elements of the system still existed. The leaders exercising the most substantial influence on this system were -- Vladimir I. Lenin and Stalin, who started the prevailing patterns of collectivization and industrialization that became typical characteristic of the Soviet
fall of the Soviet Union the United States has been often described as the world's only remaining super power. Whether this description is accurate or whether it truly matters, is open to debate but how the United States came to the point where it is even a position to be afforded such a distinction is interesting. For a nation that began as thirteen loosely organized colonies and that for
The Soviet Union had been administered for the past 70 years through a tight control on information. Gorbachev's policy of openness threw open the floodgates. The Soviet people had been kept on a tight leash through tight control on information and "fear" by an oppressive government. (Kedzie, 1997) the lifting of the fear factor did not result in, as Gorbachev had hoped, improvement in the social and economic conditions