The abrupt transformation of one-party Communist regimes into political systems holding competitive elections challenges theories of democracy by evolution.
Part One develops an inter-active model of how the supply of parties by political elites shapes the responses of inexperienced electors, and what this means for the institutionalisation of party systems and party identification. The model is then applied to elections since 1990 in ten Central and East European democracies that are now members of the European Union.
Part Two provides a definitive and up to date text of election results and the formation and disappearance of parties in these ten countries. In addition, there is a lengthy chapter on elections in Russia.
An invaluable and authoritative volume about elections in Central and Eastern Europe. It is timely, packed with hard-to-find facts and details, and clearly written.
-- Pippa Norris, Harvard University
A definitive text for election laws, parties and election results in new European democracies. As a bonus, it offers an innovative model relating the supply of election laws and parties by political elites to the demands of voters. This shows that the institutionalization of free elections leaves democracy incomplete as long as there is a floating system of parties and voters without trust. -- Arend Lijphart, University of California San Diego
Neil Munro is Senior Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen. He is co-author with Richard Rose of Elections without Order and, with Rose and William Mishler, Russia Transformed.
Richard Rose is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, and Visiting Professor at European University Institute, Florence. He has acted as consultant to global organisations including the World Bank, UNDP and the OECD. His work has been translated into 17 languages and Samizdat, and he has contributed widely to print and television media. He has been awarded seven lifetime achievement honours in countries across the world.
In his outstanding six-decade career, Rose has written more than forty books about comparative politics and public policy. His broad knowledge - gained from working as a newspaper reporter and from his experiences in the corridors of power - allows him to combine the bottom-up perspective of the ordinary citizen with the views of presidents and prime ministers. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Professor Rose has published six books on post-Communist countries, most recently Understanding Post-Communist Transformation: a Bottom Up Approach.
