Download Free The Transition From Communism To The European Union Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Transition From Communism To The European Union and write the review.

This edited collection addresses the dynamics of the post-Communist transition in Central Eastern Europe. Its contributors present a detailed analysis of the events unfolding during the last three decades in the region, focusing in particular on identity-building processes and reforms in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The contributors outline reasons why some of these states accomplished a decisive break with the Communist past and became members of European and transatlantic structures, while some opted for pseudo-transition and fostered hybrid political regimes, jeopardizing their genuine integration with the West. A group of states which decided to preserve their Communist legacy is also explained. The collection describes and scrutinizes the formation of geopolitical affiliations and the evolution of discourses of belonging. It also traces the fluctuating dynamics of national decision-making and institution-building, as many of the post-Communist states reconsider and re-elaborate their initial ideas and visions of Europe today. Finally, the collection brings to light the rapidly changing perceptions of the region by the major global actors—the European Union, People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, and others.
The Transition from Communism to the European Union provides an overview of economic change in Romania, and studies in detail the transformation in industry, energy and agriculture, drawing on fieldwork in all parts of the country. The monitoring of the economic press throughout the post-communist period has also yielded much source material. Although the political context is examined at some length, the prime consideration is economic restructuring, involving the establishment of a free market system after decades of government control through central planning. It is made clear that the process is still not complete since global competitiveness remains a major challenge now that many people are beginning to experience a degree of prosperity.
"A useful text and reference book. These essays are at their best in serving both area study and political sociology."--Slavic Review --
Eastern and Western Europe continue to change in their relationship to one another and in their ongoing dynamic with the post-Soviet states. Economic development, electoral upheaval, and the Bosnian crisis all color the transition from communism to democracy and from a Cold War outlook to a new global order still taking shape.In this fully revised and updated edition of his popular and critically acclaimed text, David Mason brings the revolutionary events of 1989 into context with the transitional yet turbulent 1990s. We see new parties, new politics, new constitutions, and new opportunities in light of economic shock therapies, ?left turns? in recent elections, and dissolving sovereignties and alliances. Despite savage ethnic conflict, economic scarcity, and political insecurity, Mason shows us that East-Central Europe is consolidating and reemerging as a region to be reckoned with on the global stage.
In November 1997 Hungarians voted in favor of membership in NATO, primarily as a step toward membership in the European Union and integration into Western society. Andor examines the changes in Hungarian social, political, and economic life after the collapse of communism in Central Europe. He analyzes the difficulties, both internal and external, to making that transition. In the early 1990s, public discourse was dominated by the enthusiastic slogans proclaiming Hungary's return to Europe. Things can only get better was the prevailing feeling surrounding the dismantling of the state socialist system and the construction of the new parliamentary democracy. From the very early years of transition, however, Hungarians faced large-scale and unexpected hardships in their changing lives which made them the most disappointed nation in Eastern Europe by 1993. In the second half of the 1990s, the policies of the Socialist-Liberal coalition, and particularly the positive developments in the enlargement process of NATO and the EU, restored the belief in a rapid and successful accession to the major Western economic and security organizations. But, as Andor indicates, the beginnings of negotiations about entry into NATO and EU will be merely the starting point of difficulties arising in both economics and politics. A thoughtful and cautious look at a changing Hungary that will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and policymakers involved with Central Europe and contemporary European politics and economics.
As the European Union (EU) launches its common currency (the Euro), Central European (CE) nations are searching for best practices in public liability management in order to smooth their integration into the EU. This work addresses that concern, examining borrowing policies, institution building, portfolio optimization, and the implications of the Euro and EU accession for public debt management. To help the CE countries achieve their goals, the World Bank and the European Commission held a two-day seminar in Brussels in mid-December 1997. European Union Accession presents the papers delivered at that seminar which was attended by all ten EU applicant countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. The workshop pursued the following goals: (1) to investigate the implications of the launch of the Euro and of the EU accession on fiscal prudence and on the borrowing strategies of CE countries; (2) to facilitate the dissemination of the best public liabilities management techniques developed worldwide; and (3) to explore plausible arrangements to promote prudent public liabilities management in Central Europe through a regional expertise network.
Europe Undivided analyzes how an enlarging EU has facilitated a convergence toward liberal democracy among credible future members of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals how variations in domestic competition put democratizing states on different political trajectories after 1989, and how the EU's leverage eventually influenced domestic politics in liberal and particularly illiberal democracies. In doing so, Europe Undivided illuminates the changing dynamics of the relationship between the EU and candidate states from 1989 to 2004, and challenges policymakers to manage and improve EU leverage to support democracy, ethnic tolerance, and economic reform in other candidates and proto-candidates such as the Western Balkan states, Turkey, and Ukraine. Albeit not by design, the most powerful and successful tool of EU foreign policy has turned out to be EU enlargement - and this book helps us understand why, and how, it works.
These ten essays are concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-Communist Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989. Differences between meanings of trust in countries with democratic traditions and in post-totalitarian countries raise questions about the ways in which history, culture and social psychology shape the nature and development of political phenomena. The authors show that while political and economic changes can have rapid effects, cultural and psychological changes may linger behind and influence the quality of political trust and representations of democracy.
Europe Undivided analyzes how an enlarging EU has facilitated a convergence toward liberal democracy among credible future members of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals how variations in domestic competition put democratizing states on different political trajectories after1989, and how the EU's leverage eventually influenced domestic politics in liberal and particularly illiberal democracies. In doing so, Europe Undivided illuminates the changing dynamics of the relationship between the EU and candidate states from 1989 to 2004, and challenges policymakers to manageand improve EU leverage to support democracy, ethnic tolerance, and economic reform in other candidates and proto-candidates such as the Western Balkan states, Turkey, and Ukraine. Albeit not by design, the most powerful and successful tool of EU foreign policy has turned out to be EU enlargement -and this book helps us understand why, and how, it works.