Edward Elgar Publishing PARTY FORMATION IN EAST–CENTRAL EUROPE: Post-Communist Politics in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria (Studies of Communism in Transition series)

Party Formation in East-Central Europe is one of the first books to present detailed studies of politics in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria during the initial three years of post-communist rule. International scholars have collaborated to produce a volume which examines the first steps in regime change and the opportunities for a successful transition to democracy. As well as examining the creation of new party systems after the end of communist rule in each country, the papers in this volume adopt a comparative perspective which highlights the regional dimension. In particular, the authors place the post-communist experience in the context of the earlier transitions from authoritarian rule in Southern Europe. They discuss whether the experience of Portugal and Spain in the 1970s and Italy in the 1940s might serve as a framework for the analysis of East-Central Europe in the 1990s. Review '. . . a welcome addition to our stock of knowledge regarding the process of democratization. . . . the real value of the book lies in the empirical details and occasional suggestive comparisons rather than in a consistently convincing conceptual rendering of the opening pages of the new chapter in East-Central European history.' About the Author Edited by Gordon Wightman, Lecturer in the School of Politics and Communicatin Studies, University of Liverpool, UK