Woodrow Wilson Center Press.

First published in 1999, this book explores the ethnic dimension of democratic peace agenda in new democracies. The democratic peace proposition concerns the fact that free peoples make good neighbours. How does it apply intra-nationally within multiethnic states? Does the establishment of a constructive and peaceful pattern of ethnic conflict management have anything to do with the type of rule? What tasks and dilemmas must be dealt with in order to promote a more positive and stable relationship of peace in democratizing multiethnic systems? The author searches for answers to these and other topical questions to underscore the linkage between ethnopolitical crises, change and choice... The case study section examines the meanings, articulations, dynamics and character of ethnic peace in four post-Soviet cases (Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia) with particular focus on areas, factors and patterns of critical choice in the realms of institutions and interactions at the onset and at critical junctions of the democratization dynamic.

Edited by two of the world's leading analysts of post communist politics, this book brings together distinguished specialists on Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia/Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. The authors analyse the challenge of building democracy in the countries of the former Yugoslavia riven by conflict, and in neighboring states. They focus on oppositional activity, political cultures that often favour strong presidentialism, the role of nationalism, and basic socioeconomic trends. Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott provide theoretical and comparative chapters on post communist political development across the region. This book will provide students and scholars with detailed analysis by leading authorities, plus the latest research data on recent political and economic developments in each country.

Although fully aware of the gravity of violent ethnic wars and challenges that multiethnic societies pose for any democratic polity, both authors endorse multicultural democracy. Jovanovic argues against territorial accommodation of ethnic demands and in favour of community-based minority rights policy. Samardzic understands territorial decentralisation as an indispensable guarantee for a fully-fledged protection of minority ethnic groups. Despite this major conceptual difference, they put forward democratic legitimacy as a fundamental condition for peaceful multiethnic societies.

This book is a study of the role of clan networks in Central Asia from the early twentieth century through 2004. Exploring the social, economic, and historical roots of clans, and their political role and political transformation in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, it argues that clans are informal political actors that are critical to understanding politics in this region. The book demonstrates that the Soviet system was far less successful in transforming and controlling Central Asian society, and in its policy of eradicating clan identities, than has often been assumed. In order to understand Central Asian politics and their economies, scholars and policy makers must take into account the powerful role of these informal groups, how they adapt and change over time, and how they may constrain or undermine democratization in this strategic region.

This book offers an examination of how a deeply divided post-conflict society embarks on democratic transition. Using Rwanda as the case study, it combines analysis of democratic transition and ethnopolitical debate, asking why deeply divided ethnic societies have a tendency to fail. Though marginalised in existing literature on democratic transition, this path-breaking book shows how ethnicity has a significant impact on the direction and success of democratic process. The initial failure of democratic transition in Rwanda shows that the current regime will need to be sensitive to ethnicity, ethnopolitical consciousness and mobility in order to be successful in its second transition attempt. Based on key informant interviews, participant observation and primary resources, this book develops beyond the case study of Rwanda to posit a new framework that integrates variables of unity, equality, trust and institutional engineering in an integrative model to study and evaluate democratic transition in divided or post-conflict society. Ethnic Politics and Democratic Transition in Rwanda will be of interest to students and scholars of democratization, democracy, and ethnic politics and conflict.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.