Prospects for Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Countries

1. Auflage 2002
ISBN: 978-90-411-1836-3
Verlag: Wolters Kluwer

Buch, Englisch, Band 50, 456 Seiten, GB, Gewicht: 853 g

Reihe: Law in Eastern Europe

The last decade of the 20th century saw radical changes in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Most of these countries made a transition from totalitarianism or authoriatarianism to democracy and from central planning to a market economy. Adding to the latter, a number of national entities gained their independence after the disintegration of the federative states of the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Many recent studies have focused on these double, in some cases triple transitions, and scholars from different fields analyzed the so-called "1989 Revolution" from different perspectives. Rather less scholarly attention has been paid to the future of post-communist constitutions and prospects for constitutionalism in these countries.

The main questions dealt with throughout this study can be formulated as follows:

Will liberal democratic constitutionalism take root in these countries?

Will new constitutions in Eastern Europe and the former USSR perish or survive?

This study also aims at contributing to the constuction of a general constitutional theory by studying the causes and dynamics of constitutional change in general. Such constitutional change is not only on the East European, but also on the West European agenda.

The purpose of this study is not to introduce a general theory about constitutional instability, but studying post-communist constitutions will help us to understand the causes and dynamics of constitutional change from a broader perspective.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gönenç, Levent

Gonenc, Levent

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Mittel- und Osteuropa, Russland
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Transformationsprozesse (Politikwiss.)
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Ost-West Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Tables. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Conceptual Framework. 2. Political Culture. 3. Constitution-Making. 4. Effectiveness. 5. Constitutional Change and Consolidation of Democracy. Bibliography. Index. About the Author.