Research Catalog

Title

Communism and the emergence of democracy / Harald Wydra.

Author

Wydra, Harald.

Publication

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

ix, 314 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"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."--Jacket.

Subject

• 1900-1999
• Communism > History > 20th century
• Democratization > Former communist countries
• Government, Resistance to > Former communist countries
• 89.15 communism
• Communism
• Democratization
• Government, Resistance to
• Staatssozialismus
• Politischer Wandel
• Demokratisierung
• Communisme
• Democratisering
• Politieke hervormingen
• Staatssozialismus > Politischer Wandel > Demokratisierung > Ostblock
• Kommunism > historia > Östeuropa > 1900-talet
• Demokratisering > Östeuropa > 1900-talet
• Former communist countries
• Ostblock
• Osteuropa
• Rusland
• Oost-Europa
• Ostblock > Staatssozialismus > Politischer Wandel > Demokratisierung

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Communism and democracy-a problematisation -- pt. I. The experiential basis of communism and democracy -- Revolutions, transitions, and uncertainty -- The political symbolism of communism -- Experiencing democratic transformations -- pt. II. Critical events and their symbolisations -- The rise of Bolshevik power -- The emergence of the Cold War -- The articulation of dissidence -- The collapse of communism -- pt. III. Democracy as a process of meaning-formation -- The power of memory -- The future that failed -- Democracy as a civilising process.

ISBN

• 0521851696
• 9780521851695

LCCN

• 2007296794
• 9780521851695

OCLC

• ocm71808139
• 71808139
• SCSB-14693912

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library