Democracy and Europe

This ambitious study, by a leading Spanish social scientist, analyzes the mutual relationships between politics and the economy. Focusing on the experiences of Southern and Eastern Europe, it examines the complex interactions between democracies, economic growth, social redistribution, and political culture.

Democracy in Europe has been a recent phenomenon. Only in the wake of World War II were democratic frameworks secured, and, even then, it was decades before democracy truly blanketed the continent. Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve organically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came to form the very fiber of Europe's current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together. Geoff Eley has given us the first truly comprehensive history of the European Left--its successes and failures; its high watermarks and its low tides; its accomplishments, insufficiencies, and excesses; and, most importantly, its formative, lasting influence on the European political landscape. At a time when the Left's influence and legitimacy are frequently called into question, Forging Democracy passionately upholds its vital contribution.

Democracy and Enlargement in Post-Communist Europe presents the principal findings of a unique in-depth study of the birth of democracy and the market economy in fifteen post-Communist countries. Haerpfer analyses and compares the information collected by the New Democracies Barometer public opinion surveys to provide an overview of the process of democratization across Central and Eastern Europe. This is an extremely valuable resource and will be useful for all those interested in the European Union, comparative politics and democracy and the Communist legacy. It contains data from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

These essays go beyond conventional studies of the institutions and parties of Europe to address Europe's democractic future more widely. While the book does offer an analysis of the democratic institutions of European countries, identifying common features and differences, as the editors put it, "institutions cannot function alone, like machines to produce concensus". So the book focuses on the fundamentals of European democratic culture. The authors argue that European social life and scientific learning have been indispensable components in the growth of the shared values that democracy pursues. They also analyse the dynamic tension brought to the life of democractic institutions by law, the desire for freedom, and critical public debate. With Europe engaged in perpetual self-examination, and rapid change, this book provides insights into its democractic past and prognosticates for its democratic future.

The development of the welfare state has been accompanied by greater freedoms being granted to workers in industrialized capitalist countries. The themes of this volume concern how governments, trade unions, and workers have acted to promote economic growth and economic accountability with active industrial or worker self-management policies. The key dimensions of economic, social, and political change in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden are analyzed in the book's essays--focusing on workplace reforms and economic management in a variety of national settings.

Providing a detailed political profile of Albania since 1989, this volume traces the country's transition from one party to many and from a command economy to a market economy.

The transformation of Eastern and Central Europe into functioning market democracies can be facilitated by incorporating the lessons of cooperation theory into standard economic theory. By doing so, the countries are more likely to achieve the fruits and benefits of a market democracy so long denied their citizens. Institutional, theoretical, and empirical results of game theory and policy analysis are woven together to present a timely understanding of this complex issue. Policy makers with key roles in the transformation processes, general economists, political scientists, and laypersons will find this analysis a useful resource.