Against a broad backdrop of globalization and worldwidede movement toward democracy, the essays in this important new collection examine the unfolding relationships among suchips phenomena as social change, equity, and democratic respresentation of the poor in nine different Latin American countries and Spain. Recent shifts in the composition off inequality and increases in overall disparities of wealth have coincided with governments turning away from historic redistributive politics, and also with the general weakening of political and social organizations traditionallyentified identified...

This second volume in a series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe analyzes the external parameters of such a consolidation in thirteen Eastern European countries. It explores how different international actors and various economic, cultural, and security types of transnational pressures have shaped democratic politics in the region, especially over the last decade.

This volume--the first in a series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe--examines the constraints and opportunities of institutional engineering in Eastern Europe. The aim is to contrast a set of democracy theories with empirical evidence accumulated in Eastern Europe over the last ten years. Avoiding complex debates about definitions, methods, and the uses and misuses of comparative research, this book instead tries to establish what has really happened in the region and which of the existing theories have proved helpful in explaining these developments.

In this fascinating exploration of democracy, Reynolds assembles prominent scholars to discuss the successes and failures of constitutional design. Chapters analyze the effects of presidential and parliamentary systems, issues of federalism and autonomy, and the varying impact of electoral systems, concluding with notable case studies of Fiji, Ireland, Eritrea, Indonesia, Nigeria, and India. The culmination of the study of constitutional engineering in the third wave of democracy, this important work sets parameters for crucial research as democracy diffuses across the world.

This volume--the first in a series of books on democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe--examines the constraints and opportunities of institutional engineering in Eastern Europe. The aim is to contrast a set of democracy theories with empirical evidence accumulated in Eastern Europe over the last ten years. Avoiding complex debates about definitions, methods, and the uses and misuses of comparative research, this book instead tries to establish what has really happened in the region and which of the existing theories have proved helpful in explaining these developments.

This book examines the European Union's response to the Arab spring, from late 2010 to the beginning of 2014. It investigates how far the EU changed its policies towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the aftermath of the Arab spring, and what impact European policies had in either helping or hindering democratization reforms during this period. It also explores what impact the Arab spring had on European security and economic interests.
Analytically, the book unpacks the factors that best explain EU policy choices in the Middle East since 2010. It highlights how the...

This book brings small states into the comparative politics cannon for the first time. It examines how politics is practiced in the smallest states where hyper-personalization has always been a ubiquitous feature of political life, and finds that hyper-personalized democracy can actually persist against all odds.