Following the end of the Cold War and European Union enlargement, in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geo-political concept? In addressing this question, contributors to this volume-Alex Cistelecan, Robert Bideleux, Katalin Miklossy and Dieter Segert-tease out the implications for an 'Area Studies' approach to the region. They examine its contradictory situation within discourses of 'orientalisation': on one hand, posited as the 'underdeveloped' pendant to its western neighbours; on the other, largely Christian by religion and an integral part of a continent that dominated the world. They uncover the roots of area studies in the 'colonial paradigm' by which great powers promote the creation of predictive, 'problem-solving' knowledge that is immediately apprehendable for decision makers, helping them to take advantage of a region's resources and strategic position, but which tends to homogenise the region's geography and history. For critical inquiry, they argue, the challenge is to delineate transparently the reasons underlying Eastern Europe's construction as an area of study, to identify the epistemological interests of motivated organisations such as funding agencies and political bodies, and to counter the ongoing orientalism of Western perspectives toward the East. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

Following the end of the Cold War and European Union enlargement, in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geo-political concept? In addressing this question, contributors to this volume-Alex Cistelecan, Robert Bideleux, Katalin Miklossy and Dieter Segert-tease out the implications for an 'Area Studies' approach to the region. They examine its contradictory situation within discourses of 'orientalisation': on one hand, posited as the 'underdeveloped' pendant to its western neighbours; on the other, largely Christian by religion and an integral part of a continent that dominated the world. They uncover the roots of area studies in the 'colonial paradigm' by which great powers promote the creation of predictive, 'problem-solving' knowledge that is immediately apprehendable for decision makers, helping them to take advantage of a region's resources and strategic position, but which tends to homogenise the region's geography and history. For critical inquiry, they argue, the challenge is to delineate transparently the reasons underlying Eastern Europe's construction as an area of study, to identify the epistemological interests of motivated organisations such as funding agencies and political bodies, and to counter the ongoing orientalism of Western perspectives toward the East. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

Since 1991, post-Soviet political elites in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have been engaged in nation -- as well as state-building. They have tried to strengthen territorial sovereignty and national security, re-shape collective identities and re-narrate national histories. Former Soviet republics have become new neighbours, partners and competitors searching for geopolitical identity in the new Eastern Europe," i.e. the countries left outside the enlarged EU. Old paradigms such as "Eurasia" or "East Slavic civilisation" have been re-invented and politically instrumentalised in the international relations and domestic politics of these countries. At the same time, these old concepts and myths have been contested and challenged by pro-Western elites. The main subject of this book is the construction of post-Soviet borders and their political, social and cultural implications. It focuses on the exemplary case of the Ukrainian-Russian border, approaching it as a social construct and a discursive phenomenon. The book shows how the symbolic meanings of and narratives on this border contribute to national identity formation and shape the images of the neighbouring countries as "the Other" thereby shedding new light on the role of border disputes between Ukraine and Russia in bilateral relations, in EU neighbourhood politics and in domestic political conflicts. The study also addresses "border making" on the regional level, focusing on the cross-border co-operation between Kharkiv and Belgorod and on the dilemmas of a Euro-region "in absence of Europe". Finally, it reflects the everyday experiences of the residents of near-border villages and shows how national and local identities are performed at, and transformed by, the new border.

Spatestens nach den zweiten freien Wahlen haben sich uberall in den postkommunistischen Staaten relativ stabile politische Parteien herausgebildet. Sie spielen eine wichtige Rolle in der Regierungsbildung und deren Legitimierung gegenuber der Bevoelkerung, weisen allerdings in bezug auf andere Funktionen haufig Defizite auf. In Fallstudien wird die Mitgliederschaft und Wahlerstarke, ihre Finanzsituation, daruber hinaus das programmatische Profil sowie das institutionelle Umfeld der Parlamentsparteien von neun postkommunistischen Staaten analysiert. Dabei werden auch die Parteiensysteme Albaniens, der Slowakei und der Ukraine vorgestellt, die in vergleichbaren Arbeiten haufig fehlen. In einem einfuhrenden Text (von Beyme) und einem ausfuhrlichen Nachwort (Segert/Stoess) werden die Einzelfallstudien in den theoretischen Kontext der Transformations- und Parteienanalyse eingeordnet.

Nach 1989 sind auch in Osteuropa politische Parteien als die fur Wettbewerbsdemokratien typischen Hauptakteure entstanden. Neben dieser Tendenz zur Angleichung lassen sich aber ostliche Eigenarten beobachten: eine dominante Stellung der "Nachfolgeparteien" im Parteiensystem vieler Staaten, trotz umfassenden Institutionenimports deutliche Kontextdiskrepanzen, schnell abnehmende Partizipationsneigungen der Burger auf dem Hintergrund postrevolutionarer Frustrationen, ein hoher Grad an politischer Instabilitat. Die Autoren vertreten die These, dass die Geschichte des Staatssozialismus die spezifischen Parteibildungsprozesse in diesem Raum am starksten beeinflusst hat. Der vergleichenden Analyse liegen Einzelstudien zu den Parteiensystemen in Ostdeutschland, Polen, der Sowjetunion/Russland, Tschechien und Ungarn zugrunde.
"(...) Das vorliegende Buch bietet eine fundierte Informationsquelle zur politischen Entwicklung im ostlichen Europa und geht uber die Darstellung des Parteiengefuges hinaus. (...) Die grosse Zahl von Schaubildern und Statistiken unterstreicht und veranschaulicht die Ergebnisse, eine Auswahl von Kurzbiographien zu den wichtigsten Politikern sowie eine Auflistung und Charakterisierung der bedeutenderen Parteien in allen untersuchten Landern erleichtern dem Leser die Orientierung. (...)"
WGO Monatshefte fur Osteuropaisches Recht, 5/96
"(...) Der Band gibt insgesamt eine gute und anregende Analyse uber die charakteristischen Zuge der mit Schwierigkeiten des Ubergangs kampfenden postsozialistischen Region dar und wird so (...) fur die sich interessierenden Forscher zu einem grundlegenden Handbuch."
Welt Trends, 1