Around the fringe of Europe lies a green ring of countries which have followed different pathways into modernity from the industrial core of the continent and have, until recently, been characterized by a strong agrarian presence in their politics, economy and culture. This book brings together case studies from both the post-socialist countries and EU member states which make up the green ring to compare experiences of rural and agricultural groups. It provides a fascinating opportunity to identify similarities and contrasts in the ways in which these countries have managed their rural areas when faced with the challenges set by industrialization, political integration and globalization. The book focuses on agrarian transformation as de- (and sometimes re- ) peasantization - referring to the changing economic, social, cultural and political positions of farmers and food production workers. It also problematizes the standard rural models and opens up discussion of the problems these models pose for the farmers of the green ring countries.

Contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring are having profound impacts on the form and function of rural areas within the countries of the European Union and beyond. Furthermore, rural development policies and programmes at EU and national levels have been critical in shaping the responses of different rural areas across Europe to these wider processes of restructuring. Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the restructuring processes and the various national, regional and local rural development programmes. Adopting a different national perspective in each chapter, it focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes. Five broad issues are examined in each case: socio-economic changes in rural areas, the administrative context in which rural development and political activities take place, the sociological context, the political control of rural development, and the use of different discourses of rurality in shaping the development process.

Contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring are having profound impacts on the form and function of rural areas within the countries of the European Union and beyond. Furthermore, rural development policies and programmes at EU and national levels have been critical in shaping the responses of different rural areas across Europe to these wider processes of restructuring. Contrasting empirical studies of ten European countries, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the restructuring processes and the various national, regional and local rural development programmes. Adopting a different national perspective in each chapter, it focuses particularly on issues of power and leadership in the evolution and administration of these programmes. Five broad issues are examined in each case: socio-economic changes in rural areas, the administrative context in which rural development and political activities take place, the sociological context, the political control of rural development, and the use of different discourses of rurality in shaping the development process.

Around the fringe of Europe lies a green ring of countries which have followed different pathways into modernity from the industrial core of the continent and have, until recently, been characterized by a strong agrarian presence in their politics, economy and culture. This book brings together case studies from both the post-socialist countries and EU member states which make up the green ring to compare experiences of rural and agricultural groups. It provides a fascinating opportunity to identify similarities and contrasts in the ways in which these countries have managed their rural areas when faced with the challenges set by industrialization, political integration and globalization. The book focuses on agrarian transformation as de- (and sometimes re- ) peasantization - referring to the changing economic, social, cultural and political positions of farmers and food production workers. It also problematizes the standard rural models and opens up discussion of the problems these models pose for the farmers of the green ring countries.

This conceptually synthetic and empirically rich book demonstrates the vulnerability of democratic settings to authoritarianism and populism. Six scholars from various professional fields explore here the metamorphosis of a political party into a centralized authoritarian system. Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party needed less than ten years to accomplish this transformation in Hungary. In 2010, after winning a majority that could make changes in the constitution - two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, they evolved and stabilized the system, which produced again the two-thirds majority in 2014 and 2018. The authors reveal how a democratic setting can be used as a device for political capture. They show how a political entity managed to penetrate almost all sub-fields of the economy to arrive at institutionalized corruption, and how the centralized power structure reproduces itself. With the help of a powerful empirical apparatus-among others analyses of more than 220,000 public tenders, redistributions of state subsidies, and the interconnectedness of those privileged with the political elite - the authors detail the functioning of a crony system and the network aspects of political connections in the rapid enrichment of politically-linked businesses. Their studies demonstrate the role of political capture in this redistribution and how this capture leads to a new social stratification.