The new edition of this market-leading text brings together specially commissioned chapters by a team of top international scholars on the changing politics of this diverse region negotiating the competing pulls of the European Union and post-communist Russia.

The papers that comprise this collection examine the role of competing European, national, ethnic and regional identities over the introduction of new regional levels of government in the former Soviet and now Central and Eastern European states.

The new edition of this market-leading text brings together specially commissioned chapters by a team of top international scholars on the changing politics of this diverse region negotiating the competing pulls of the European Union and post-communist Russia.

Post-communist state transformations in Central and Eastern Europe have been accompanied by an upsurge of identity politics as newly-independent peoples sought to redefine themselves and their place in Europe.
National unity has proved elusive in practice as new democracies have debated constitutional and territorial-administrative changes to prepare for the challenges of "returning to Europe" while at the same time integrating diverse historical regions and ethnic minorities.
The case of regional reform and resurgent regional politics presented in this volume highlight the divergent concepts of statehood which have emerged as Central and East Europeans struggle to come to terms with the meaning of their statehood today.
Competing models have been advocated in terms of their perceived conformity with national or local traditions and wider trends in modern European governance, but local interests and identities have challenged this emphasis on the imperatives of sovereignty, territorial unityand administrative efficiency.
The contributors investigate these pressing issues as new and tougher controls are enforced at the EU's emerging external borders, posing fresh challenges to national, regional and minority identities.

Reconstituting the Market details many transition economies - some already well known, others enjoying very little attention from researchers - and a range of important issues to do with state building and its links with microeconomic transformation. The book was based on the authors' view that transition in the new states would be fundamentally more difficult than in more established states - a view which turned out to be incorrect, since in all the transition countries the former communist state had to be largely rebuilt as part of the complex process of constructing a market economy. Aspects of this process, focusing on competition policy, privatization, and the regulation of public utilities, are examined in respect to Central Europe, the Baltics, Russia, Ukraine and Moldova. The result is essential reading for anyone seeking an up-to-date account of key transition issues, covering both familiar and unfamiliar countries.

This fifth edition of "Developments in Central and East European Politics" maintains the series' status as the most up-to-date and authoritative guide to political transformations in the region. The countries that emerged from the collapse of communism between 1989 and 1991 embarked on transitions to democracy and a market economy that were profoundly affected by developments such as the expansion of the European Union (EU) and NATO.

Central and East Europe is a large, extremely diverse region, encompassing full-fledged EU members--the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Slovakia, followed later by Bulgaria and Romania--as well as nations of the Western Balkans that are progressing at various speeds along the EU path--Croatia, about to join; Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, with EU candidate status; and Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, struggling to keep up. The region also includes the East European states of Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. In this collection, leading authorities examine how these heterogeneous nations have fared since the collapse of communism. The contributors look at executive leadership, elections and voter behavior, parliamentary systems, political parties, citizen engagement in civil society, the effects of neoliberalism, and the quality of life in postcommunist democracies. Most of the essays are new to this edition; the rest have been thoroughly updated.
"
Contributors." Judy Batt, Sarah Birch, Nathaniel Copsey, Terry Cox, Rick Fawn, Tim Haughton, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Paul G. Lewis, Frances Millard, David M. Olson, Mitchell A. Orenstein, Andrew Roberts, Ray Taras, Stephen White, Andrew Wilson