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What has Eastern Europe taught us about the democratisation literature (and vice versa)?

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European Journal of Political Research

Abstract

The relationship between Eastern Europe anddemocratisation studies so far has been highlyasymmetric. In contrast to the vast contribution, bothin data and theory, of Eastern Europe to thedemocratisation literature, the latter has been ofonly modest use to the understanding of thedemocratisation processes in post-communist Europe.Despite the growing number of empirically groundedassessments, most notably of degrees of democraticconsolidation within East-Central Europe, there isstill very little agreement on what exactly isdemocratic transition and consolidation or on whatexplains the seemingly widening gap betweenEast-Central Europe on the one hand and the Balkansand post-Soviet republics on the other hand. Webelieve that at least part of the answer lies in twounderdeveloped topics of the democratisationliterature: state and nation-building (the `third'transition) and the international dimension. Moreover,to uncover the answers democratisation studies wouldgreatly profit from expanding its disciplinary andgeographical constraints, i.e., by integrating researchfrom, most notably, nationalism studies, internationalrelations as well as democratisation studies of the`first wave'.

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  1. Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK

    Petr Kopecý

  2. Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh, UK

    Cas Mudde

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Kopecý, P., Mudde, C. What has Eastern Europe taught us about the democratisation literature (and vice versa)?. European Journal of Political Research 37, 517–539 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007190931632

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