{"title":"The Party Isn't Over: An Analysis of the Communist Party in the Czech Republic","authors":"Jiří Lach, J. LaPlant, J. Peterson, D. Hill","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2010.499285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2010.499285","url":null,"abstract":"In the first decade of the 21st century, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) has remained electorally relevant in the Czech Republic. An analysis of the historical roots of the party within the context of the other communist parties in Central Europe can help illuminate the factors that have contributed to the resilience of the party. Furthermore, an exploration of the party platform and leadership reveals how the party has endeavoured to remain relevant. The KSČM averaged 17 per cent of the vote across seven elections in the first decade of the century. A multivariate analysis of electoral support for the KSČM across the seven elections highlights the conspicuous influence of unemployment, population density, and the crime rate. The party is a study in contradictions and its continued electoral success will ensure weak coalition governments in the Czech Republic.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114150949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Politics of Corruption: Political Will and the Rule of Law in Post-Communist Romania","authors":"Mihaiela Ristei","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2010.496324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2010.496324","url":null,"abstract":"Once a rarely discussed issue, corruption has become one of the most debated problems in the past 15 years, particularly in the context of democratization. For post-communist countries, corruption has represented a particular challenge, undermining their process of democratic consolidation. Even in the absence of a tradition of the rule of law and of democracy, there is promise in the fight against corruption when there is political will to combat it. The case of Romania demonstrates that European Union (EU) pressure, electoral pressure and the political will of the domestic political leadership combined to secure the establishment of the rule of law and combating corruption in the Romanian judiciary between 1997 and 2006.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128284338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ukraine's Controversial Transition: How It Became a Market Democracy","authors":"Taras Kuzio","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712666","url":null,"abstract":"Åslund’s book represents the only Western volume that seeks to chronicle the last two decades of Ukraine’s transition from a Soviet republic in a totalitarian empire with a command administrative economy to an independent democratic state with a market economy. The book is exhaustive in what it surveys but is nevertheless also controversial in the largely positive analysis it gives of the transition process. The volume is also, as I will show, replete with mistakes that devalue its potential contribution to political science, but these could be overcome in future editions. The book is most excellent when Åslund discusses areas that he was involved in as an adviser to Ukrainian governments. In the early 1990s he describes the ‘total confusion in economic policy’ and the lack of ‘qualified economists’; meanwhile, ‘The ignorance of economics as astounding and international interaction was minimal’ (pp.30, 44). The lack of understanding of what constituted a market economy during Leonid Kravchuk’s presidency during 1991–94 was seen in his economic adviser, Oleksandr Yemelianov, who was, in Åslund’s view, the ‘most dogmatic communist economist I have ever met’ (p.30). In the 1990s Ukraine became an ‘oligarchic economy’ with insider privatization, state intervention to maximize rents, and corrupt tax and state subsidies (p.128). ‘This model of self-reinforcing rent seeking was close to equilibrium and thus stable’ (p.128) until the late","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132751452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Territories of ‘Special Status’ in Russia: The Ethnic Dimension","authors":"Oksana Oracheva, A. Osipov","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712534","url":null,"abstract":"The practical significance of creating ‘ethnic territorial units’ within the Russian federation remains unclear. Since 2003 the Russian Government has implemented a policy of merging ethnically defined autonomous okrugs (districts) into larger units. The former okrugs have been replaced by the territories of a ‘special’ status. Some new legal provisions refer to these units’ ‘ethnic’ character. However, examination of the new legislation reveals that issues of ethnicity, the protection and promotion of minority languages, and the cultural heritage of the okrugs have largely been neglected. All the legal acts adopted to date are very general in nature and do not provide details of the guarantees and obligations necessary to put such policies into practice.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129642326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regional Governors under the Dual Power of Medvedev and Putin","authors":"N. Petrov","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712633","url":null,"abstract":"The over-centralized unitary model of centre–regional relations that was developed under President Vladimir Putin has not substantially changed under the new dual leadership of Dmitrii Medvedev and Putin. Although the provincial governors have now been successfully integrated into the Kremlin's vertical chain of command, the weakening of their institutional and personal powers has made them a weak link, and it has also made the chain itself weaker, especially during a time of economic crisis. By making governors more and more dependent on the centre, the Kremlin may have succeeded in creating power steering for the driving wheel; however, the connection between the driving wheel and the other wheels has become much weaker.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121345840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Fall and Rise of Regionalism?","authors":"J. Goode","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712583","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712583","url":null,"abstract":"The centralization of power and the decline of regionalism were two of Vladimir Putin's principal achievements during his presidency. These achievements are now threatened by the global financial crisis, which weakens the Russian central state and widens existing divisions between the centre and the regions. While the crisis does not portend a revival of a 1990s-style regionalism, it exposes the Kremlin's over-centralization of power in the form of stress within the ruling party, United Russia, and rising internal defections among regional elites. As a result, the regime is increasingly vulnerable to social protest and its potential transformation into anti-regime nationalism.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"92 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116417863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How United is United Russia? Regional Sources of Intra-party Conflict","authors":"D. Slider","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712617","url":null,"abstract":"The United Russia party has been given the role of the dominant party in the Russian political system, both at the national level and in all regions. Nevertheless, the party lacks many of the institutional characteristics that would allow it to play an autonomous role, particularly in regional politics. United Russia lacks an effective patronage system; personnel decisions are in the hands of other actors. The party is highly centralized, yet subject to pressure from governors who are only formally subordinate to the party. Intra-party democracy is minimal, and the regional party organs lack financial independence. Conflicts among regional elites take the form of a struggle for control over the party, and this hinders United Russia's ability to establish strong regional organizations. This appears to be the desired outcome; the Kremlin uses the party as a screen to conceal its efforts to micro-manage regional political developments.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126897299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ten Yardsticks of Federal Conflict Regulation and their Application to Russia","authors":"Andreas Heinemann-Grüder","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712500","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712500","url":null,"abstract":"There is sharp controversy over the pros and cons of federalism as a means of regulating or escalating conflicts in deeply divided societies. Successful conflict regulation depends on the institutional minutiae of a given federation and its interdependence with other parts of the political regime. The various guises assumed by federalism in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 demonstrate that the survival of a federation, particularly one based on ethnic principles, depends on the adherence to federal norms, the functioning of democratic institutions, effective conflict-regulation devices, and political parties that reflect federal cleavages.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121189059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Federalism and Inter-governmental Relations in Russia","authors":"C. Ross","doi":"10.1080/13523271003712476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712476","url":null,"abstract":"Since the inauguration of Vladimir Putin as President of the Russian Federation in 2000, the principles and practices of federalism have come under attack and we have witnessed a recentralisation of power in the Kremlin. Over the period 2003–6 a number of major laws were adopted that seriously weakened the powers and competencies of federal subjects. Moreover, any hopes that the centralizing initiatives of the Putin administration would be reversed by President Medvedev have been dashed. Inter-governmental relations in Russia are once again conducted in accord with Soviet style principles of hierarchy and control. Russia is a ‘quasi-unitary’ state masquerading as a federation.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127350124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The JCSTP Prize 2009","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/13523270903522860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903522860","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"416 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133677914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}