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This paper analyzes the effects of individuals' perceptions of social inequality on their political engagement in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Using new survey data in 13 CEE countries, the preliminary findings suggest that individuals who see excessive amounts of social inequality exhibit lower levels of social activity including opportunities to build social capital and a deeper community life (including perceptions of their own political efficacy) than those who do not. However, this high perceptions group also displays a consistent and distinct pattern of political engagement in the form of interest, knowledge, and political participation. More interestingly, in contrast to the overall corrosive effect of income inequality on political engagement, especially for lower income individuals, the mixed effect of social inequality only weakly and sporadically mediated by individuals' income levels despite initial evidence that income moderates perceptions of social inequality. Thus, overall, we find evidence that social inequality is not only theoretically separate from income inequality but also exerts an independent influence on individuals' engagement with democratic politics in post-communist states.This paper analyzes the effects of individuals' perceptions of social inequality on their political engagement in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Using new survey data in 13 CEE countries, the preliminary findings suggest that individuals who see excessive amounts of social inequality exhibit lower levels of social activity including opportunities to build social capital and a deeper community life (including perceptions of their own political efficacy) than those who do not. However, this high perceptions group also displays a consistent and distinct pattern of political engagement in the form of interest, knowledge, and political participation. More interestingly, in contrast to the overall corrosive effect of income inequality on political engagement, especially for lower income individuals, the mixed effect of social inequality only weakly and sporadically mediated by individuals' income levels despite initial evidence that income moderates perceptions of social inequality. Thus, overall, we find evidence that social inequality is not only theoretically separate from income inequality but also exerts an independent influence on individuals' engagement with democratic politics in post-communist states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, over 120 governments around the world have enacted major regulatory reforms in telecommunications, including the establishment of separate regulatory authorities for telecoms, thus heralding a shift from a protected public utility to a tradable service. Why did so many countries choose to enact similar, market-oriented reforms to telecom regulation in such a short period of time? And, how do these global trends interact with regional pressures as well as domestic political constraints and opportunities, particularly in transition countries in Central Europe in the process of EU Accession? Contrary to conventional wisdom, I find that global factors alone cannot explain the timing of establishing a separate regulatory authority for telecoms, that traditional interest group arguments cannot explain the current wave of regulatory reforms across a wide range of countries and regions, and that arguments based on domestic variation in institutions often underestimate international pressures as well as the behavior of other countries. My paper takes a third approach, part of a new and growing literature, in which I explicitly analyze the possibility of policy diffusion, or interdependent decision-making among countries. This diffusion approach raises questions about both rational and sociological mechanisms for policy change, and carefully combines specific factors from both the international and the domestic approaches in order to isolate the most important determinants of the timing of regulatory reform in telecommunications. I analyze telecom regulatory reform in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, all middle-income countries in the dual process of transition to a market economy and accession to the European Union. I first situate the four countries within the larger context of global regulatory reform in telecommunications, using econometric analysis of the timing of establishing a separate regulator in 189 countries from 1975-2002. I find that diffusion matters especially on a regional level, and that the traditional arguments that stress either purely international or purely domestic variables cannot explain the timing of regulatory reform in these countries. In order to understand the process more clearly, and to learn more about actors, mechanisms, and how EU Accession and diffusion matter, I next present a comparative case analysis of the four countries. Interdependent decision-making on a regional level emerges as an important factor in the timing of reform, particularly in light of harmonizing regulations with the EU. Policy change was led from above by government leaders who sought to join the European Union and restructure the overall economy, starting with the state-owned telecom company. These leaders looked to concrete examples of prior regional regulatory reform, especially other small European states grappling with EU harmonization. The comparative case studies reveal distinct national and regional variation within the larger global trend of telecom reform, and the variation across cases elicits a deeper understanding of regional influences and policy diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurgence of attention to civil society as a concept of political thought and practice as well as of social science research in the past two decades has been intimately connected to the fall of communism in Europe. In fact, the connection has been so close as to render some of it myopic, not always clear on what it is that one is looking at, what is denoted and what is meant to be achieved by the term ‘civil society’ in reference to the events, actors, and processes preceding, affecting and succeeding the political change in the Eastern block. This paper systematically reviews the various ways in which civil society has been conceptualized and employed in the literature focusing on the past two decades of Central and Eastern Europe, exploring the extent to which certain assumptions underlying the concept have been challenged, explicated, or, conversely, taken for granted. It traces the fluctuating vision of civil society as a tool and as a cause, posited as an explanatory variable and as a dependent variable, but always in connection to transition to and consolidation of democracy, and assesses whether the literature to date has shown the concept of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe to have analytical value-added. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of individuals' exposure to the international economy on their political preferences varies widely. While it has been studied primarily in terms of trade policy and in western democracies, this paper uses cross-national survey data to examine the effect of exposure to foreign-owned firms on individuals' attitudes towards the legitimacy of various aspects of government social policies in post-communist Central and Eastern European countries. This survey data allows a direct test of the micro-foundations of the theory that greater exposure to the international economy leads people to demand more social protection. The finding presented here indicates that the influence of employment in a foreign-owned firm is more complex. In the post-communist context it appears to shift individuals' preferences away from government redistribution. This is true even though their underlying preferences for an egalitarian society do not differ significantly ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU has agreed with the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe transitional periods for the free movement of workers. However Sweden, the UK and Ireland opened their labour markets already in 2004. Nearly 250.000 people a year took their chance to migrate to the EU 15 countries. This paper examines the macroeconomic consequences of this process using a CGE model of the mayor sending country Poland and the main destination country, the UK. Within the model unemployment which is a kind of catalyser of the macroeconomic effects is reflected by a wage curve. .x000d.I find that migration leads to a rising GDP in the UK and a falling GDP in Poland. .x000d.Nevertheless, these common results do not reflect that polish workers transfer a huge fraction of their earnings to their home country. Therefore, remittances as a specific kind of savings are introduced in the model. The results are quite interesting. Remittances can offset the negative impact of emigration from Poland and enhance the standard of living there. We observe a strong GDP and exchange rate effect leading to a sharp decline of wage differentials between the sending and receiving country. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2006 all of the post-communist states of East and Central Europe (ECE) had adopted laws on Freedom of Information (FOI). This is intriguing considering that it took most “traditional” democracies much longer to pass such laws. The paper asks why the laws were adopted so quickly in ECE and if they are truly effective. The study identifies three mechanisms that contributed to the adoption of FOI laws: a) pressure from civil society; b) unexpected consequences of membership in transparent international organizations; c) direct involvement by international actors. It argues that the differences in the processes leading to FOI law adoption in these countries have translated into differences in their effectiveness. I generate a series of hypotheses and test them by developing two gauges of effectiveness of FOI laws: 1) the public’s use of laws (based on the number of FOI requests received), 2) the implementation of laws by officials (based on the proportion of requests receiving answers). The research looks at developments in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on attitudes toward EU integration in Poland before and after accession, suggesting a model for Central and Eastern European countries. The aim is to present new research directions with the use of a mixed method approach. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I address the question of what particular problems for the democratic theory are posed by the development of post-communist democracies of Central Europe (my attention focuses on Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic). These countries do not represent a type of democratic regime in its own right, but to look at them just as imperfect realizations of the various existing Western models of democracy (or, put even less accurately, the Western model of democracy) would fail to do justice to their specific historical and cultural traditions. Their record on democracy is improving, but some notorious problems persist: insufficient accountability of various levels of government to the general public, low transparency of public bodies' decision-making, weak civil society and low levels of civic engagement; other serious shortcomings are not so commonly commented on: institutional immaturity of states and civil societies, limited capacity of the agents of public discourse formation (independent media, academia) to exert influence upon political decision making, or the weakness of both the government agencies and the public sphere vis-à-vis powerful economic interests. Theoretically interesting is the observation that even if the Schumpeterian minimalist conception of democracy as the system of government based on periodically held and free elections is fulfilled in these countries, illegitimate use of power is not fully mitigated. The overview of principal deficiencies of Central European democracies highlights the need for more demanding normative models of democracy, such as those proposed by J. Habermas or J. Cohen. These models, in contrast to the minimalist conception, can provide the necessary guidelines for further democratic improvements in countries that have done very well in their democratization efforts, but can do even better. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why did East and Central European countries decide to join NATO after the Warsaw Pact dissolved? The paper sheds light on the conceptual blindspots of neo-realist explanations of foreign policy making by analyzing NATO expansion from the perspective of the Central and East European applicants for NATO membership. Contrary to the expectations of neo-realist scholars support for NATO membership was costly to build, particularly in Central and East European countries where the perception of threat from Russia was low. The historical evidence I examine indicates that in the early 1990s it was not apparent what post-Cold War security arrangement would best suit the needs of the former Warsaw Pact allies. For the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Balkan countries, which had not experienced or been threatened by Soviet invasion, NATO membership was neither a clear choice nor the only security option they could pursue. NATO’s adaptation and expansion challenges neo-realist expectations and supports arguments advanced by neo-liberal institutionalists and constructivists. In its essence, the paper is a re-examination of our traditional understanding of the constraints and opportunities the international system presents to non-hegemonic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-Corruption Strategies (ACS) and Fighting Corruption Monica Dorhoi Michigan State University Department of Political Science dorhoiio@msu.edu There is no doubt about the corrosive effect of corruption on the fundamentals of the democratic principles (such as rule of law, openness, transparency and democratic accountability and equity in dealing with citizens). Corruption also undermines the efficiency of public services, the transparency of applicable laws and regulations, the consistency and the coherence in policy formation and ethical standards). In the process of democratization, the post-Communist Central and Eastern European countries have adopted Anti-Corruption Atrategies with the purpose of creating the necessary legal and institutional framework or strengthening/enforcing the existing ones. Nevertheless, after more than a decade from the fall of communism they are still ranked in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International at the bottom as “very corrupt” compared to the Western European countries. For example, in the CPI index of 2003, Netherlands is ranked 8, Germany 20 and France 23 while Estonia is 33, Hungary 40, Lithuania 41, Bulgaria 54 and Romania 83. The purpose of this paper is investigate how curbing or reduction of corruption can come about as even if the widely agreed definition of corruption is the misuse of public power for private benefits, the complexity of the corruption phenomenon makes it impossible to have a universal panacea. It will evaluate the effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Strategies of the Central and Eastern European countries, from both a theoretical and comparative perspective. This paper will also investigate the relevant application to the Central and Eastern European countries of the successful strategies of the USA, England and Scandinavian countries, which experienced reductions of governmental corruption 1900s. For example, in the 19th century, a great many U.S. cities and states, were governed in a very corrupt manner, but the civil service reform movement, coupled with the Progressive movement (and the Populist movement in some more rural states), gradually eliminated (or at least greatly reduced) the corruption in and of government. One hypothesis is that for an Anti-Corruption Strategy (ACS) to be effective, its components should vary vertically based on targeted types of corruption (small or petty, medium or high level corruption) and horizontally, the domain it occurs and the time span to achieve the proposed goals (short, medium and long term goals). In addition, governing elites and public support have to stand behind the ACS. For example, the Romanian Cabinet’s ACS lasted only 1 year and included the enactment in less than 6 months of more than 10 fundamental anti-corruption laws with virtually no public debate. A preliminary qualitative investigation does suggest that the efficiency of ACS strategies is correlated with the quality of the legislation, political accountability, separation of powers in the state, electoral cycles and political stability, traditions, previous regime type, strong civil society participation and independent media, international organizations’ pressure, competitive private sector and new public sector management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at women's representation in 173 party delegations to the national assemblies of 20 Central and Eastern European countries prior to March 2004. Taking into consideration both country and party level variables, the analysis explores the effects of economic development, gender equality, electoral institutions, geographical closeness to the West and party characteristics on female representation.

The article explores party system fragmentation in fourteen countries of Central and Eastern Europe. First, the analysis approaches the issue of fragmentation from a broader theoretical and comparative perspective. Second, the argument makes a novel claim that differences in patterns of fragmentation are less observable across countries and more visible within the party systems with the right and the center-right segments of the party space experiencing greater balkanization in the majority of the countries considered.

Support for Democracy and Autocracy in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe.x000d.1992 - 2006.x000d..x000d.Christian W Haerpfer.x000d..x000d.The topic of this paper is part of the current scholarly debate about the concept of “political support for democracy.” This paper proposes to go beyond that specific concept of “support for democracy” and includes, in addition, the concept of “support for autocracy” within comparative studies of democratization. The proposed paper is analyzing political support for democracy on 5 levels: political community (1), regime principles (2), regime performance (3), regime institutions (4) as well as political actors (5). This paper is the sequel of an article in the International Political Science Review 2008, vol. 29, No.4, 411-432..x000d..x000d.The data analyzed in this article are taken from the New Democracies Barometer (NDB) as well as the World Values Study (WVS) for 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. The paper is using data from both surveys for the following countries: Slovenia (1), Poland (2), Romania (3), Bulgaria (4), Serbia (5), Moldova (6), Ukraine (7), and Russian Federation (8). The paper will use as most recent time point data from the most recent WVS wave, which has been conducted in 2006 and 2007. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the highly influential ‘The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’ of Gosta Esping Anderson (1990) most of the scholarly discussion of comparative social policies has been held within this consecrated framework of liberal, corporatist/Christian democratic and social democratic welfare systems. .x000d.Outside of the Western world little- if any- work on the relationship between government partisanship and the structure of social policy has been done. Part of the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap with a study of the systems of social redistribution in the former Communist countries. The paper will test the relationship between government partisanship and the structure of social spending in twelve new democracies from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). .x000d.Two alternative explanations for the final structures of social expenditure in these twelve countries will also be considered. The first alternative is developed within the ‘path dependency’ framework and looks at how the Communist regimes as well as the initial social needs after democratization shaped the structure of social spending. The second alternative looks at how the need to meet the requirements for EU accession shaped the social policies in the candidate countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly emerging inequalities were some of the immediate consequences of the end of the communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, yet, seventeen years later, as these countries are now members of the European Union, very little is known about what types of welfare states have emerged in the region. This paper explores the question of how the post-communist institutions and policies, designed to deal with social and economic inequalities, fit within the typologies of welfare capitalism drawn from the study of the industrialized societies. This question is especially relevant since the desire among the citizens of the post-communist countries to ‘return to Europe’ was driven not only by hopes for economic prosperity but also by a specific vision of welfare capitalism, resembling if not the Scandinavian countries, then at least Germany or France. Additionally, European integration has challenged the ‘traditional’ types of social capitalism, making them moving targets. The analysis section of the paper evaluates the factors, such as public opinion and preferences, pressures from international lending institutions and policy diffusion across borders which affect the emergence of a specific type of a social welfare system. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a comparative approach to the nexus of external pressures and domestic-level institutions as it examines the effects of several external pressures on four most-different CEE countries in a single policy domain. It examines the surprising convergence on a strikingly similar ownership structure in the steel sector in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia, which sold their steelworks to strategic foreign investors. The outcome is doubly surprising. First, these countries have had the most diverse legacies out of the East Central European cases. Second, the timing of convergence was stunning, as the transition laggards, especially Romania, but also Slovakia, privatized their largest steelworks to strategic foreign investors prior to transition leaders, namely the Czech Republic and Poland. While the current outcome suggests convergence, the paper process-traces the distinct trajectories these countries took to reach the observed ownership structure. It argues that depending on their level of state technocratic capacity, these countries were more resilient to the homogenizing effects of some external pressures than of others. The paper divides external pressures into the pressures of the international markets, international financial institutions, and the European Union. Where the level of state technocratic capacity was the lowest, the international financial institutions predominated, where the level was intermediate, the international market pressures were largely responsible for the decision to sell to strategic foreign investors. High level of state technocratic capacity, on the other hand, allowed the transition leaders to withstand the mentioned external pressures the longest, only succumbing to direct EU pressures to restrict state aid to the sector and consequently, to sell the steelworks to strategic foreign investors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this paper is electoral behavior. The paper isconcerned in the post-communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe.It was analyzed EU newcomers of the fourth enlargement wave (Poland, theBaltic States), as well as the states covered by the European NeighborhoodPolicy such as Ukraine in the paper. The main aim was, analyzing electoralbehavior in particular sub-national territories in order to discoverdifferences and common trends for the countries examined.Efforts to interpret electoral behavior in the different sub-nationalterritories of post-communist space as pro- or anti-Western orientation ofthe voters led to the complicated though interesting picture.Interconnecting relations between socio-economic, ethnic, culturalcharacteristics of particular sub-national territories and the attitudes oftheir inhabitants expressed in voting results and opinion polls werediscussed. The specific of electoral behavior were analyzed using quantitativemethod. This method helped to examine the results of parliamentary andpresidential elections and EU accession referenda of 2003. The results ofelections and referenda were dependent variables. Opinion polls ondemocratic values, euro-integration, Euro-Atlantic security in particularterritories were also taken into account. Then, specifics of regional voting were analyzed. Different depth ofdividing state territories into sub-national units allows taking intoconsideration broad variety of economic and socio-economic characteristicsof these territories. These characteristics, such as ethnic composition(percentage of ethnic group other that title one, if remarkable) andeconomic development (GDP per capita), served as independent variables.Correlations between independent and dependent variables repeating in anumber of measurements showed certain tendencies within examined country.The totality of such tendencies demonstrated common trends of electoralbehavior for post-communist space. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the activities of various transnational actors as they seek to diffuse international anti-trafficking norms to domestic level and influence state anti-trafficking policies and initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What accounts for the electoral successes of Eurosceptic and populist political parties in Central and East Europe? Citizens in the region have expressed their support for these types of parties during recent elections while, at the same time, aggregate levels of support for EU membership and trust in EU institutions remain high. EU-centered explanations for the growing popularity of these parties have focused on the dissatisfaction of citizens with specific aspects of European integration such as the economic reforms, the perceived loss of sovereignty or the strict requirements regarding protection of minorities. This paper proposes an alternative causal explanation by establishing a relationship between perceptions of domestic political corruption in East Europe and citizens’ growing support for populist and Eurosceptic parties. Moreover, it shows that the news media has a direct influence on citizens’ perceptions of political corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the link between constitutions and individual attitudes has, by and large, been ignored in favor of focusing on the impact of specific institutional arrangements. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between theoretical expectations concerning the importance of constitutions and empirical work in the field. Beginning with Jürgen Habermas’ theory of discursive democracy, I analyze how constitutions affect both behavior (discourse) and individual levels of perceived regime legitimacy. Constitution drafting and implementation across Central and Eastern European countries provide a unique natural experiment to test hypotheses derived from normative theory. Findings suggest that constitutions impact both behavior and attitudes, but not in the way that Habermas predicted. While both the effective level of checks and balances and rule of law significantly impact the probability of political discourse. Guaranteed rights (necessary and non-necessary) actually decrease levels of perceived legitimacy. Interestingly, the inclusivity of the constitutional drafting and ratification processes appear to have no impact on perceived legitimacy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars who have examined the concept of euroscepticism to date have argued that opposition to European integration is multifaceted. An increasingly popular debate surrounding this differentiation of eurosceptics attempts to separate so-called “hard” euroscepticism (complete rejection of attempts to integrate) from “soft” euroscepticism (qualified objection to Europeanization). Much of the existing inquiries of this kind have been conducted in terms of how these forms affect the party system, but little is known about what individual level factors might drive each of these forms of euroscepticism, especially when it comes to regions that have recently entered into the process of integration. Our paper looks at these multiple types of euroscepticism in the context of central and eastern Europe and asks which demographic, political, and attitudinal factors drive views toward the structural and policy-based questions driving integration. We also inquire into the conceptual distinctness of these types of euroscepticism at the micro level. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the nature of political competition regarding the issue of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries’ EU accession. The conventional arguments in the literature emphasize the importance of the presence of political competition and pro-EU consensus in public as the main factors leading to the decision to join the EU in CEE. This “convergence” argument emphasizes parties’ responsiveness to public’s interests on this issue area. We suggest that rather than political competition the accession to the EU can be better explained by theories that examine the tools available to political elites to manipulate the policy space (for details see Dunleavy (1991), Rabinowitz and MacDonald (1989), Budge and Farlie (1983). We examine this argument by analyzing the party manifesto positions and the public’s position on the EU membership in the period before the accession and present evidence contrary to the “convergence” argument. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), political parties have not been successful with generating loyal constituencies consistently and the academia’s attempts to explain the creation of political parties by the reference to social cleavage theories are not necessarily applicable in the CEE cases. The turn of political elites to populism should not come as a surprise, given the existence of ideological vacuum in CEE states where parties have been failing to articulate the interests of their constituencies and mobilize them. What is puzzling is the strength of the populist party appeal in some CEE states and their relative weakness in other cases. This paper focuses on the rise of political party populism in ex-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. What is the nature of East Central European populism and how is it different from its Western or Latin American versions? Which factors explain the rise of populism and its stronger appeal in some CEE cases (such as Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria) and its relative weakness in other cases? Finally, what are the implications of the rise of populism for the quality of democracy? Does populism hinder democracy or is it a “corrective mechanism” of democracy? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the myriad ways in which political corruption is antithetical to democracy, incidences of such corruption, or at least the perception that this corruption exists, has been on the rise throughout the formerly communist states of East-Central Europe over the last decade. Given the continued process of democratic consolidation in the region, how might we explain this growing perception that political systems are corrupt? Beyond the determinants of perceptions of corruption, the consequences these perceptions hold for new democracies may be equally, if not more, important. Do these perceptions influence an individual’s attitudes toward the political system? Furthermore, does perceiving the system to be corrupt hold consequences for the behavior of these individuals? This paper contributes to the extant literature, in which corruption perceptions are largely overlooked, by utilizing survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems to examine both the causes and consequences of perceived corruption in eight post-communist states: Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovenia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the collapse of communist regimes in East-Central Europe (1989-1991), party competition emerged in the region that was once dominated by a single communist party. However, this process differed greatly form country to country. On the one hand, in some countries such as Romania or Latvia, first elections were characterized by a small number of electoral parties (2-3 parties). Opposite to this was Poland that produced during its first free and fair election no less than thirteen successful electoral parties. Others, for instance, such as Estonia, Slovakia or Czech Republic, registered mid-range values between 4 and 6 for the number of electoral parties. Almost twenty years later, Romania and Poland are more similar than dissimilar in terms of the number of electoral parties, while countries such as Slovakia increased from mid-range values to upper extreme of 9 parties. What explains the variation over time in party system size in East-Central Europe? This paper aims to answer this question by considering the interplay among the institutions (electoral systems and electoral laws), state subventions, and societal heterogeneity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results from a comparative case-study on compliance with European Union (EU) law in the new member-states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses whether assimilation and contrast effects manifest in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature and elements of the latest anti-corruption strategies while developing the first comprehensive quantitative assessment index, which I call the Anti-Corruption Assessment Index (ACAI). First, I shall discuss the need for ACS by making a literature review of the fight against corruption. Then, I shall describe ACAI and its methodology. More specifically, I discuss the need for quantitative anti-corruption strategy assessments and the ACAI, including its components, research stages, mathematical formula, and scale, as well as weaknesses and further suggested lines of refinement of ACAI. The next section is dedicated to the presentation of findings and trends for overall and each ACAI sub-area. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theoretical implications of internal party democracy for the electoral fortunes of political parties and relates the issue to the political contexts in Central and Eastern Europe. The main argument to be analyzed stipulates that more internally-democratic parties are more successful electorally. The alternative view emphasizes the presence of a trade-off between vote maximization and internal democracy. In addition, the analysis outlines a list of empirical indicators of the degree of internal party democracy and a procedure for classifying political parties in Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, the analytical framework is applied to the major political parties in Bulgaria. The empirical evidence illustrates that the degree and consequences of internal party democracy vary across parties and political contexts. Examples of electoral success can be found both for parties that restrict and enhance internal democracy. Yet, greater inclusiveness of party members into the deliberation and decision-making processes with moderate to high degrees of decentralization are likely to provide parties with more stable structural bases, better ability to deal with internal crises, and more legitimate decisional outcomes, which in turn would increase the viability of party organizations in the external environment. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What role have ethnic minorities played in the creation of new policies and state behavior in East-Central Europe? This paper argues that ethnic groups prompted European institutions to apply pressures on states to change their domestic policies. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets and democracies constitute more or less contested allocative mechanisms. Given that they define winners and losers, they may in turn generate or ameliorate social conflict over distributive outcomes. When perceptions of social inequality are high, the probability of markets and democracy generating social conflict may be even higher and this propensity may even be heightened further in the case of new or unconsolidated markets and democracies. We test these expectations against evidence from mass surveys undertaken in 12 post-Communist states in 2007 supplemented by country-level data about economic and political performance. Notably, we find little link between national-level indices of income inequality and expectations that markets and democracy will produce social inequality. However, we do find a link between views of the extent of social inequality and expectations of market generated but not democracy generated conflict, even when controlling for support for the market and democracy as ideal systems. Underscoring these positive and negative findings, views of social inequality are also clearly consequential for support for 'strong hand' economic government, but not for anti-democratic leadership. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using new data from 2006 in 13 post-Communist CEE states to consider the circumstances in which social inequality becomes culturally and politically salient, especially among individual-level, party stances, and country-level circumstances. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a sample of 22 Central and Eastern European countries, I test whether European Union candidacy increased the level of democracy during and after the accession process, while controlling for relevant economic and political factors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests extended hypotheses on social capital and political participation in East and Central European countries, and demonstrates that interpersonal trust plays a role in the willingness to engage in militant and nonmilitant protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project investigates the content of the latest Central and Eastern European ACS and the factors that have brought about their initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the international effects on the process of democratization and attempts to provide coherent and systematic accounts for why there are different external influences and how they have affected at different phases of democratization through a cross-regional comparison between East Asia and Central Europe. By focusing on process-oriented analysis and on interactions between external and internal factors, I argue that we should isolate international influences from common domestically dependent-level factors in national cases, in order to examine the exact effects of key explanatory factors. At the same time, the regional differences provide me enough variations to examine external effects with regional variables. I also challenge the mainstream “domestically biased” assumption that democratization is an exclusively domestic affair by arguing that external influences are a crucial part in democratic transition and consolidation especially through assessing regional and international impacts on regime change in the two regions. Furthermore, some scholars provide systemic and comprehensive approaches to explore the major mechanisms of the external impacts on regime change, but their generalizations are based on comparisons within only one geographic or cultural region. Thus, there are limits to the applicability and credibility of their general frameworks. Therefore, this study is a first effort to compare the international effects on democratization between the East (Confuciandom) and the West (Christendom). It attempts not only to refine current theoretical frameworks, but also to enhance the literature on democratization in breadth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central and Eastern Europe Countries are quite unique. They inherited economies which were not adapted to modern, market-oriented economies of western countries. They are still in economical, institutional and political transition. In spite of that they are characterised by a high economic growth there is still a big gap in effectiveness and competitiveness between these economies. Process of globalisation makes this pursuit more complicated. Also inside this group of emerging markets there are essential differences, first of all in situation on labour markets, structure of economies and role of new economy branches. In these conditions role of the economic policy is on the increase. Membership in the European Union appears to be a main step to accelerate the process of civilisation growth and minimalization of national and regional differentiation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, there have been countless studies that examine the variations in government spending. One stream of this impressive body of work has underscored the salience of district magnitude on government spending. Yet, the focus of these studies has regularly targeted spending policies in advanced industrial democracies. Consequently, it is unclear whether these same findings hold in other settings. In this study, I use a cross-sectional time series estimation with both fixed and random effects estimations to assess the importance electoral structure vis-à-vis government spending in East-Central Europe. The findings challenge the conventional wisdom derived from politics in developed democracies, and raise a number of questions regarding the impact district structure has on Postcommunist spending levels. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of emerging democracies in the first wave of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been largely with newly designed constitutions, which were to some extent imported or heavily influenced by constitutions of developed democracies. Transition itself has emerged in a number of those countries from a bargaining process between local political players and the old regime. Yet in none of those cases has constitutional design been instrumental in this bargaining process. We argue that a stable constitutional framework would have the potential to facilitate a negotiated transition with possible guarantees for the outgoing regime. This makes it more likely that democratization occurs at lower levels of mobilization and the transition itself is more likely to be non violent. A case in point is Chile where a totally different picture of transition from autocracy to democracy can be seen. There, the transition process had been governed by the 1980 constitution which has since been only marginally reformed. Our theoretical argument is based on a rational bargaining approach in which the autocrat sets the status quo for negotiations between political actors in the stage after democratization has occurred. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores whether and to what extent party organizational strength in terms of organizational complexity, geographical coverage and the extent of party activity matters for party success and survival in the context of new democracies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the nature of party divisions in 13 East-Central European countries. Based on an expert survey covering 87 parties, we find that policy divisions fit 1 dimension but that the salience of issues varies with country traits. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Central and Eastern Europe have neo-liberal policies injected a sense of individualism or nostalgia for past protections by the state? We investigate by using World Value Survey data to measure variations of conceptions of state responsibility. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I show how the politics of welfare policy changed in Central/Eastern Europe and argue that the dismantling of the generous communist programs began before political change. Instead of hindering the change, democratization facilitated these changes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a quantitative analysis of Eastern and Central Europe’s parties’ responses to economic globalization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of thirty-three governments from Central and Eastern Europe for the time period 1990-2007 concludes that the majority of these governments followed policies consistent with mandate representation, even when they unaccountable. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We identify several effects of enlargement on waste policy in the EU-15 and on Hungary and other CEEC countries, within a general concern for how changing boundaries affects policy outcomes. Enlargement means that the EU internalizes more and more externalities of environmental policy, leading to higher-standard policies. These higher standards lead to greater spillover into other issue areas and thus more policies integrating environmental measures into other areas. We also identify important distributional effects. With the greater power of consumer interests in the EU compared to central Europe, we expect a shift in the costs of waste policy from consumers to producers. This trend is also evident in Hungary’s evolution from a state socialist country, though for different reasons. One effect is the large involvement of EU-15 corporations in waste policy in the CEEC. Over time, we should see some convergence in how the newer and older EU members allocate the costs of waste reduction, reuse or recycling, and disposal among consumers, producers, and government. Finally, considering the state’s own interests helps us identify some principal-agent problems in the accession negotiations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theory about the institutional determinants of cabinet stability in Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that the type of political regime (parliamentary, semi-presidential, and presidential) is a central determinant of cabinet survival ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a systematic comparative analysis of coalition behavior in Central and Eastern Europe. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]