Graeme Gill

M. Steven Fish

Milenko Petrovic

This edited volume seeks to understand and explain the pattern of varying national and regional success in post-communist political and economic transition across the post-communist world. Despite widespread hopes for the development of vigorous democratic political systems and vibrant market economies, the outcomes of a quarter century of post-communist transition in the countries of the former communist bloc in Eurasia have been widely variant. Some have matched these hopes, including becoming full members of the EU; others have fallen far short, with political and economic systems little changed from the communist era. This collection, with an internationally respected list of contributors, addresses some of the pressing issues in political science and transition studies, ranging from theoretical overviews to the more specific nitty-gritty of contemporary politics.

A Quarter Century of Post-Communism Assessed

Matthew Kroenig

Where is the power? Students of politics have pondered this question and social scientists have scrutinized formal political institutions and the distribution of power among agencies of the government and the state. But we still lack a rich bank of data measuring the power of specific governmental agencies, particularly national legislatures. This book assesses the strength of the national legislature of every country in the world with a population of at least a half-million inhabitants. The Legislative Powers Survey (LPS), is a list of 32 items that gauges the legislature's sway over the executive, its institutional autonomy, its authority in specific areas, and its institutional capacity. Data were generated by means of a vast international survey of experts, extensive study of secondary sources, and painstaking analysis of constitutions and other relevant documents. Individual country chapters provide answers to each of the 32 survey items, supplemented by expert commentary and relevant excerpts from constitutions.

A Global Survey

The Handbook of National Legislatures

Although Russia experienced dramatic political breakthroughs in the late 1980s and early 1990s after shedding the shackles of Soviet rule, it subsequently failed to continue progressing toward democracy. M. Steven Fish offers an explanation for the direction of regime change in post-Soviet Russia, relying on cross-national comparative analysis as well as on in-depth field research in Russia. Fish demonstrates that Russia's failure to democratize has three causes: too much economic reliance on oil, too little economic liberalization, and too weak a national legislature.

M. Steven Fish

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