The Dynamics of Democratization

"A systematic comparison of three sets of democratization cases in Europe since 1945 (post-war Italy and West Germany; Southern Europe from the mid-1970s; and Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s), this book highlights diversities of the historical context, political experience, democratic traditions, economic development and cultural background." "Pridham views the democratization process as a whole, not just as either democratic transition or subsequent regime consolidation, as is the case with much of the literature on this subject, and, while his major concern is political regime change, other forms of transformation, such as economic or state-building, are included where these are especially important. He uses the rich diversity of the European experience in this area to apply an 'interactive dynamics' theory of democratization and proposes this as a means of overcoming the deficiencies of existing theories, which have proved inadequate for explaining the ongoing democratization and transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe in particular."--Jacket.