Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes: A Conceptual Framework

The most comprehensive work on post-communist regimes to date, offering a single, coherent framework of the political, economic, and social phenomena that characterize them. It focuses on Central Europe, the post-Soviet countries, and China and provides a systematic mapping of possible post-communist trajectories. The analysis encompasses state types, actors, autocrats, corruption, the "relational economy," China as a "market-exploiting dictatorship," the sociology of "clientage society," and the instrumental use of ideology, with an emphasis on populism. The book is written in an accessible style suitable for beginners and scholars and is equipped with QR codes that link to interactive, 3D supplementary material for teaching.

Format: Hardback
Length: 834 pages
Publication date: 01 November 2020
Publisher: Central European University Press

Offering a comprehensive framework of the political, economic, and social phenomena that characterize post-communist regimes, this is the most comprehensive work on the subject to date. Focusing on Central Europe, the post-Soviet countries, and China, the study provides a systematic mapping of possible post-communist trajectories.

At exploring the structural foundations of post-communist regime development, the work discusses the types of state, with an emphasis on informality and patronalism; the variety of actors in the political, economic, and communal spheres; the ways autocrats neutralize media, elections, etc.; the evolution of corruption and the workings of "relational economy"; an analysis of China as "market-exploiting dictatorship"; the sociology of "clientage society"; and the instrumental use of ideology, with an emphasis on populism.

Beyond a cataloguing of phenomena—actors, institutions, and dynamics of post-communist democracies, autocracies, and dictatorships—Magyar and Madlovics also conceptualize everything as building blocks to a larger, coherent structure: a new language for post-communist regimes.

While being the most definitive book on the topic, the book is nevertheless written in an accessible style suitable for both beginners who wish to understand the logic of post-communism and scholars who are interested in original contributions to comparative regime theory. The book is equipped with QR codes that link to www.postcommunistregimes.com, which contains interactive, 3D supplementary material for teaching.

Weight: 2190g
Dimension: 218 x 278 x 48 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789633863718