Post-communist democratic revolutions have so far taken place in six countries: Slovakia
(1998) Croatia (1999-2000) Serbia (2000) Georgia (2003) Ukraine (2004) and Kyrgyzstan
(2005). The seven chapters in this volume situate these events within a theoretical and
comparative perspective. The volume draws upon extensive experience and field research
conducted by political scientists specializing in comparative democratization regime politics
political transitions electoral studies and the post-communist world. The papers by Valerie
Bunce and Sharon Wolchik Henry Hale Paul D'Anieri David R. Marples Taras Kuzio Lucan A.
Way and Steven Levitsky as well as Anika Locke Binnendijk and Ivan Marovic explore different
regime types and opposition strategies in post-communist states the diffusion of opposition
strategies between states in which democratic revolutions were attempted the strategic
importance of youth NGO's in mobilizing oppositions towards democratic revolutions the use of
non-violent strategies by the opposition path dependent theoretical and comparative
explanations of the sources of successful and failed democratic revolutions and the factors
that lie behind divergent post-revolutionary trajectories. The volume represents a breakthrough
in our understanding of why and how democratic revolutions take place in the post-communist
world. It provides an integrated analysis of why such upheavals succeed in some but fail in
other states. The contributions point to among other issues why the post-revolutionary
breakthroughs in Serbia Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan have encountered obstacles the ousted regime
was never fully defeated and its representatives were able to launch counter-revolutions as
well as why in Serbia and Ukraine the political forces of the ousted regimes have returned to
power in free elections held after democratic revolutions. Post-Communist Democratic
Revolutions in Comparative Perspective will be important reading for scholars and policy makers
alike.
