Each volume examines the origin and history of one of these diverse forms of government.

Each volume examines the origin and history of one of these diverse forms of government.

Discusses various aspescts of socialism, including its history, ideology, key figures, and the future of this political system.

A system of government in which citizens share labor and property, Communism has been practiced in a number of different ways through the ages. The ancient Greek and medieval Utopian visions included an ideal society, while twentieth century Communism took a more sinister turn with the regimes of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung. The international scope of the Cold War pitted superpowers against one another in a struggle that could have ended the world. An authoritative guide on Communism's roots and practices, this timely volume investigates the historical context of this form of government, along with party platforms, images, and speeches.

Each volume examines the origin and history of one of these diverse forms of government.

Each volume examines the origin and history of one of these diverse forms of government.

Originating with the ancient Greeks, democracy has taken many forms through the centuries. The beginning of modern democracies is traced to the Magna Carta in 1215, and afterward the increasing rights of individuals in their governments. The Constitution of the United States embraced the idea of democracy, becoming the great experiment that inspired democratic forms of governments through the years and across the world. This insightful volume includes relevant sources, images, and a timeline to trace the history and permutations of democracy as it has been practiced by different countries.

Each volume examines the origin and history of one of these diverse forms of government.

Offering a single, coherent framework of the political, economic, and social phenomena that characterize post-communist regimes, this is the most comprehensive work on the subject to date. Focusing on Central Europe, the post-Soviet countries and China, the study provides a systematic mapping of possible post-communist trajectories. At exploring the structural foundations of post-communist regime development, the work discusses the types of state, with an emphasis on informality and patronalism; the variety of actors in the political, economic, and communal spheres; the ways autocrats neutralize media, elections, etc. The analysis embraces the color revolutions of civil resistance (as in Georgia and in Ukraine) and the defensive mechanisms of democracy and autocracy; the evolution of corruption and the workings of “relational economy”; an analysis of China as “market-exploiting dictatorship”; the sociology of “clientage society”; and the instrumental use of ideology, with an emphasis on populism. Beyond a cataloguing of phenomena—actors, institutions, and dynamics of post-communist democracies, autocracies, and dictatorships—Magyar and Madlovics also conceptualize everything as building blocks to a larger, coherent structure: a new language for post-communist regimes. While being the most definitive book on the topic, the book is nevertheless written in an accessible style suitable for both beginners who wish to understand the logic of post-communism and scholars who are interested in original contributions to comparative regime theory. The book is equipped with QR codes that link to www.postcommunistregimes.com, which contains interactive, 3D supplementary material for teaching.