Democracy And Myth In Russia And Eastern Europe

Democracy And Myth In Russia And Eastern Europe Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Democracy And Myth In Russia And Eastern Europe book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe

Author : Alexander Wöll,Harald Wydra
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2007-10-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134089079

Get Book

Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe by Alexander Wöll,Harald Wydra Pdf

In the absence of democratic state institutions, eastern European countries were considered to possess only myths of democracy. Working on the premise that democracy is not only an institutional arrangement but also a civilisational project, this book argues that mythical narratives help understanding the emergence of democracy without ‘democrats’. Examining different national traditions as well as pre-communist and communist narratives, myths are seen as politically fabricated ‘programmes of truth’ that form and sustain the political imagination. Appearing as cultural, literary, or historical resources, myths amount to ideology in narrative form, which actors use in political struggles for the sake of achieving social compliance and loyalty with the authority of new political forms. Drawing on a wide range of case studies including Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, this book argues that narratives about the past are not simply ‘legacies’ of former regimes but have actively shaped representations and meanings of democracy in the region. Taking different theoretical and methodological approaches, the power of myth is explored for issues such as leadership, collective identity-formation, literary representation of heroic figures, cultural symbolism in performative art as well as on the constitution of legitimacy and civic identity in post-communist democracies.

Fantasies of Salvation

Author : Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 1998-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1400818419

Get Book

Fantasies of Salvation by Vladimir Tismaneanu Pdf

Despite Democratic successes in places such as the Czech Republic and Poland, Tismaneanu argues that it would be a mistake for the West to assume that liberalism will always triumph in post-Communist Europe. "Fantasies of Salvation" is a thought-provoking book for both academic and nonacademic readers who wish to understand the forces shaping one of the world's most important and unpredictable regions.

Fantasies of Salvation

Author : Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2009-06-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400822508

Get Book

Fantasies of Salvation by Vladimir Tismaneanu Pdf

Eastern Europe has become an ideological battleground since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with liberals and authoritarians struggling to seize the ground lost by Marxism. In Fantasies of Salvation, Vladimir Tismaneanu traces the intellectual history of this struggle and warns that authoritarian nationalists pose a serious threat to democratic forces. A leading observer of the often baffling world of post-Communist Europe, Tismaneanu shows that extreme nationalistic and authoritarian thought has been influential in Eastern Europe for much of this century, while liberalism has only shallow historical roots. Despite democratic successes in places such as the Czech Republic and Poland, he argues, it would be a mistake for the West to assume that liberalism will always triumph. He backs this argument by showing how nationalist intellectuals have encouraged ethnic hatred in such countries as Russia, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia by reviving patriotic myths of heroes, scapegoats, and historical injustices. And he shows how enthusiastically these myths have been welcomed by people desperate for some form of "salvation" from political and economic uncertainty. On a theoretical level, Tismaneanu challenges the common ideas that the ideological struggle is between "right" and "left" or between "nationalists" and "internationalists." In a careful analysis of the conflict's ideological roots, he argues that it is more useful and historically accurate to view the struggle as between those who embrace the individualist traditions of the Enlightenment and those who reject them. Tismaneanu himself has been active in the intellectual battles he describes, particularly in his native Romania, and makes insightful use of interviews with key members of the dissident movements of the 1970s and 1980s. He offers original observations of countries from the Baltic to the Black Sea and expresses his ideas in a vivid and forceful style. Fantasies of Salvation is an indispensable book for both academic and nonacademic readers who wish to understand the forces shaping one of the world's most important and unpredictable regions.

Putin’s Totalitarian Democracy

Author : Kate C. Langdon,Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher : Springer
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2019-07-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783030205799

Get Book

Putin’s Totalitarian Democracy by Kate C. Langdon,Vladimir Tismaneanu Pdf

This book studies the cultural, societal, and ideological factors absent from popular discourse on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, contesting the misleading mainstream assumption that Putin is the all-powerful sovereign of Russia. In carefully examining the ideological underpinnings of Putinism—its tsarist and Soviet elements, its intellectual origins, its culturally reproductive nature, and its imperialist foreign policy—the authors reveal that an indoctrinating ideology and a willing population are simultaneously the most crucial yet overlooked keys to analyzing Putin’s totalitarian democracy. Because Putinism is part of a global wave of extreme political movements, the book also reaffirms the need to understand—but not accept—how and why nation-states and masses turn to nationalism, authoritarianism, or totalitarianism in modern times.

Democracy versus Modernization

Author : Vladislav Inozemtsev,Piotr Dutkiewicz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2013-05-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781136267819

Get Book

Democracy versus Modernization by Vladislav Inozemtsev,Piotr Dutkiewicz Pdf

This book seeks to "re-think democracy." Over the past years, there has been a tendency in the global policy community and, even more widely, in the world’s media, to focus on democracy as the "gold standard" by which all things political are measured. This book re-examines democracy in Russia and in the world more generally, as idea, desired ideal, and practice. A major issue for Russia is whether the modernization of Russia might not prosper better by Russia focusing directly on modernization and not worrying too much about democracy. This book explores a wide range of aspects of this important question. It discusses how the debate is conducted in Russia; outlines how Russians contrast their own experiences, unfavourably, with the experience of China, where reform and modernization have been pursued with great success, with no concern for democracy; and concludes by assessing how the debate in Russia is likely to be resolved.

Communism and the Emergence of Democracy

Author : Harald Wydra
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2007-02-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781139462181

Get Book

Communism and the Emergence of Democracy by Harald Wydra Pdf

Before democracy becomes an institutionalised form of political authority, the rupture with authoritarian forms of power causes deep uncertainty about power and outcomes. This book connects the study of democratisation in eastern Europe and Russia to the emergence and crisis of communism. Wydra argues that the communist past is not simply a legacy but needs to be seen as a social organism in gestation, where critical events produce new expectations, memories and symbols that influence meanings of democracy. By examining a series of pivotal historical events, he shows that democratisation is not just a matter of institutional design, but rather a matter of consciousness and leadership under conditions of extreme and traumatic incivility. Rather than adopting the opposition between non-democratic and democratic, Wydra argues that the communist experience must be central to the study of the emergence and nature of democracy in (post-) communist countries.

Russian Politics

Author : Zoltan D. Barany,Robert G. Moser
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2001-08-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0521805120

Get Book

Russian Politics by Zoltan D. Barany,Robert G. Moser Pdf

What went wrong in Russia's decade-old post-communist transition? A group of leading young scholars answer this question by offering assessments of five crucial political arenas during the Yeltsin era: elections, executive-legislative relations, interactions between the central state and the regions, economic reforms, and civil-military relations. All of the contributors recognize that adverse historical legacies have complicated Russian democratization. They challenge structural explanations that emphasize constraints of the pre-existing system, however, and concentrate instead on the importance of elite decisions and institution-building. The authors agree that elites' failure to develop robust political institutions has been a central problem of Russia's post-communist transition. The weakness of the state and its institutions has contributed to a number of serious problems threatening democratic consolidation. These include the tensions between the executive and the legislature, the frail infrastructure for successful market reform, and the absence of proper civilian control over the armed forces.

Amidst Turbulence and Hope

Author : Shashikant Jha,Bhaswati Sarkar
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Democracy
ISBN : 8170950910

Get Book

Amidst Turbulence and Hope by Shashikant Jha,Bhaswati Sarkar Pdf

Contributed articles presented at a seminar in 2001.

After the Soviet Empire

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 426 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2015-10-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789004291454

Get Book

After the Soviet Empire by Anonim Pdf

The break-up of the Soviet Union is a key event of the twentieth century. The 39th IIS congress in Yerevan 2009 focused on causes and consequences of this event and on shifts in the world order that followed in its wake. This volume is an effort to chart these developments in empirical and conceptual terms.

Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989

Author : Katherine Graney
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2019-08-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780190055103

Get Book

Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989 by Katherine Graney Pdf

Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, early hopes for the integration of the post-Soviet states into a "Europe whole and free" seem to have been decisively dashed. Europe itself is in the midst of a multifaceted crisis that threatens the considerable gains of the post-war liberal European experiment. In Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989, Katherine Graney provides a panoramic and historically-rooted overview of the process of "Europeanization" in Russia and all fourteen of the former Soviet republics since 1989. Graney argues that deeply rooted ideas about Europe's cultural-civilizational primacy and concerns about both ideological and institutional alignment with Europe continue to influence both internal politics in contemporary Europe and the processes of Europeanization in the post-Soviet world. By comparing the effect of the phenomenon across Russia and the ex-republics, Graney provides a theoretically grounded and empirically rich window into how we should study politics in the former USSR.

Eternal Russia

Author : Jonathan Steele
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : History
ISBN : 0674268377

Get Book

Eternal Russia by Jonathan Steele Pdf

The former Moscow bureau chief of London's The Guardian presents an in-depth history of the former Soviet Union from 1987 to today. Jonathan Steele draws on interviews with Gorbachev, senior members of the Yeltsin inner circle, and many other sources to highlight the difficulty of establishing democracy and a free market in Russia.

Restructuring Post-Communist Russia

Author : Yitzhak Brudny,Jonathan Frankel,Stefani Hoffman
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2004-06-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0521840279

Get Book

Restructuring Post-Communist Russia by Yitzhak Brudny,Jonathan Frankel,Stefani Hoffman Pdf

Written by Russian and Western scholars, this collection of original essays presents a general overview of political change in Russia since 1991. Rather than interpret the collapse of state socialism as "the end of history" or the beginning of the "transition" to a liberal, free market democracy, the contributors examine recent Russian history by analyzing it in comparison with the histories of other states of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They address topics of national identity, demographic change, and the characteristics of Russian democracy.

Rampart Nations

Author : Dr. Liliya Berezhnaya,Heidi Hein-Kircher
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2019-03-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781789201482

Get Book

Rampart Nations by Dr. Liliya Berezhnaya,Heidi Hein-Kircher Pdf

The “bulwark” or antemurale myth—whereby a region is imagined as a defensive barrier against a dangerous Other—has been a persistent strand in the development of Eastern European nationalisms. While historical studies of the topic have typically focused on clashes and overlaps between sociocultural and religious formations, Rampart Nations delves deeper to uncover the mutual transfers and multi-sided national and interconfessional conflicts that helped to spread bulwark myths through Europe’s eastern periphery over several centuries. Ranging from art history to theology to political science, this volume offers new ways of understanding the political, social, and religious forces that continue to shape identity in Eastern Europe.

Democratic Elections in Poland, 1991-2007

Author : Frances Millard
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2009-10-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781135276249

Get Book

Democratic Elections in Poland, 1991-2007 by Frances Millard Pdf

This book is a political history of democratic elections in Poland from the first fully competitive parliamentary elections in 1991 to the unexpected, most recent election in 2007. Until now, there has been no equivalent study covering similar developments in this, or any other, post-communist country; this book fills the gap and provides a detailed electoral perspective on the trajectory of political development in the context of post-authoritarian change. It also provides an invaluable account of the evolution of electoral processes and institution-building in the context of democratic regime development. The major themes of the book centre on the complex, problematic development of Poland’s political parties and the parties’ failure to gain public support and win the confidence of the electorate. Frances Millard examines the failure of Polish elites; the lack of a stable party system and how elections have had a destabilizing effect, and she argues that the interaction of leadership volatility, party volatility, and electoral volatility have created uncertainty and undermined political parties as effective vehicles of representation. Poland is a large and important country, worthy of study in its own right, but equally many of the problems experienced are not unique to Poland; so this book also constitutes a comparative benchmark for analysis of democratic developments elsewhere.

Politics and the Sacred

Author : Harald Wydra
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2015-04-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781107075375

Get Book

Politics and the Sacred by Harald Wydra Pdf

Argues that practices of the sacred have shaped the frames of modern secular politics.