Is democracy a hot-house plant? Is it difficult to transplant it into new soil? The fall of so many dictatorships in the last few years--first in Southern Europe, then in Latin America, now in Eastern Europe--opens new, more optimistic perspectives on democratic development. The crises of dictatorships and the search for a new political order offer fertile ground for an examination of how best to effect democratic transitions.

By focusing on the objective conditions that make democracy probable, sociological and historical theories of democracy often lose sight of what is possible. Here...

Is globalization and European integration transforming the basic structure of politics in European nations? Is it eroding basic institutions like national sovereignty, citizenship, social security, and democracy? Is the European Union (EU) a new kind of political institution, differing from a traditional national state? The essays in this volume find that European integration and internationalization has transformed political institutions and styles of governing. However, they argue as well that the U.S. offers important insights into the way EU politics and institutions work.

Is globalization and European integration transforming the basic structure of politics in European nations? Is it eroding basic institutions like national sovereignty, citizenship, social security, and democracy? Is the European Union (EU) a new kind of political institution, differing from a traditional national state? The essays in this volume find that European integration and internationalization has transformed political institutions and styles of governing. However, they argue as well that the U.S. offers important insights into the way EU politics and institutions work.

Until recently, liberalism was, according to Karl Polanyi, embedded within civil society, working closely with a democratic state intent on addressing, in solidarity, the social risks associated with modern capitalism. Modern relations between society and the state have been, at best, ones of shared language and goals rather than necessary conflict. Already under the polizeistaat, absolutist rulers took, in their own way, the care of their population as central to their rule. The welfare state was only the most innovative embodiment of such collective concerns. Today's neoliberalism is, to...