Cases and Concepts in Comparative Politics bridges the gap between understanding and doing comparative politics. Concepts are presented in the context of real situations with pedagogy that asks students to apply their new knowledge immediately in country case studies. Students spend more time actually doing the work of comparative politics. Through Dynamic Data Figures in the Norton Illumine Ebook, in addition to InQuizitive, students have even more support in learning the core concepts of comparative politics and applying them to real-world examples.

In this highly original book, Patrick O'Neil analyses the catalysts of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and offers explanations for these events. The exceptional case of Hungary is used to support theoretical concepts regarding the transition in Eastern Europe using new empirical evidence and institutional theory. The Hungarian transition from communism is distinct in that the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party was the initiator of its own transition but also acted as its own greatest enemy. This book provides a detailed analysis of the internal reform movement within the Hungarian Communist Party and its role in the incremental transition to democracy in the late 1980s. The author utilises party archives and primary interviews with important figures in the Communist Party to examine the effect of institutional relationships on the collapse of the authoritarian order. He also emphasises the role of reform circles in accelerating the disintegration of the Communist Party in Hungary. The book concludes that the way in which an autocratic order perpetuates itself affects the manner of its decline and the new system that takes its place. This authoritative book will be welcomed by academics and students interested in the politics of transition both in Hungary and Eastern Europe and the politics of the demise of communism in general.

Since the collapse of communism in 1989 Eastern Europe has experienced a fundamental transformation in its economic, political and social institutions. Observers of the region have often viewed the media as little more than instruments of propaganda in the hands of the party-state which can now be easily made into independent sources of communication. However, the function and effects of the media within communist and post-communist Eastern Europe have been more diverse than such generalizations would indicate.