This work provides a comprehensive introduction to the nations of Central and Eastern Europe over a half century of turbulent change - from post-war subjugation by the Soviet Union to both shared and divergent experiences of post-communist transition to free-market democracies. Detailed chapters on each country of the region describe the particular feautures of the country's communist regime and its collapse, and the country's response to four post-communist challenges: creating democratic political institutions; economic liberalisation; achieving social accord; reorienting relations with the world, and in particular with neighbouring states.

A comprehensive introduction to the nations of Central and Eastern Europe over a half century of turbulent change - from post war subjugation by the Soviet Union to both shared and divergent experiences of post-Communist transition to free-market democracies.

This study traces the history of the national committee chairmanships of the two major political parties in the United States, emphasizing the national conventions and presidential campaigns - where national factions often reveal themselves. Candidate and ideolological factionalism, as the evidence of this volume demonstrates, has been the principal engine of convention action. Factional conflicts have had consequences not just for the political parties but for the party system itself. The institutional history of the two national committees and their chairmanships reveals a previously unrecorded aspect of United States national party development.