From Solidarity to Geopolitics
Subtitle: Support for Democracy among Postcommunist States
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9781107049987
Subjects: European union; Democracy; Post-communism, europe, eastern; Europe, eastern, politics and government, 1989-
Description: "This book theorizes a mechanism underlying regime-change waves, the deliberate efforts of diffusion entrepreneurs to spread a particular regime and regime-change model across state borders. Why do only certain states and nonstate actors emerge as such entrepreneurs? Why, how, and how effectively do they support regime change abroad? To answer these questions, the book studies the entrepreneurs behind the third wave of democratization, with a focus on the new eastern European democracies - members of the European Union. The study finds that it is not the strongest democracies nor the democracies trying to ensure their survival in a neighborhood of nondemocracies that become the most active diffusion entrepreneurs. It is, instead, the countries where the organizers of the domestic democratic transitions build strong solidarity movements supporting the spread of democracy abroad that do. The book also draws parallels between their activism abroad and their experiences with democratization and democracy assistance at home"--