Overview

This book provides a groundbreaking analysis of democratization in Poland by placing Solidarity in the context of the major democratic upheavals of modernity; the French and American Revolutions. Departing from case studies of Solidarity that treat the movement in isolation, this study undertakes the first full historical comparison of the Polish movement with the ideals and institutions of democracy achieved in the last three centuries. Arista Maria Cirtautas explains that the institutionalization of a strong democracy in Poland will ultimately depend upon whether the similarities to the great tradition of democratic revolution outweights the differences. Providing the historical and theoretical groundwork for future comparative study of contemporary democratic movements, The Polish Solidarity Movement addresses the most vital and pressing questions about the underlying meaning of one of the most important social revolutions of our time.

Full Product Details

9780415169400

Table of Contents

Reviews

... not simply a study of Solidarity, but rather an ambitious and pathbreaking effort to analyze the ideological origins of modern democracy by examining its articulation and institutionalization in three diverse revolutionary periods... Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects on institutional practice. - Comparative Politics No short review can do justice to this ambitious and remarkable book. There is nothing similar to it, theoretically, and the author's detailed familiarity with primary and secondary sources related to revolutionary apologetics is exemplary. - Perspectives on Political Science Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects of institutional practice. In essence, she demonstrates how the precise ideological basis of legitimation underlying democratic institutions can be seen as an independent variable with observable effects on the dependent variables of institutional design with democratic stability. Unlike the transitions to democracy approach, no teleology is implied; natural law is seen as only one type of value rationality among many, whose power to generate democracy depends crucially upon the presence of a supportive social environment.. -Stephen E. Hanson, From Culture to Ideology in Comparative PoliticsI

... not simply a study of Solidarity, but rather an ambitious and pathbreaking effort to analyze the ideological origins of modern democracy by examining its articulation and institutionalization in three diverse revolutionary periods... Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects on institutional practice. <br>- Comparative Politics <br> No short review can do justice to this ambitious and remarkable book. There is nothing similar to it, theoretically, and the author's detailed familiarity with primary and secondary sources related to revolutionary apologetics is exemplary. <br>- Perspectives on Political Science <br> Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects of institutional practice. In essence, she demonstrates how the precise ideological basis of legitimation underlying democratic institutions can be seen as an independent variable with observable effects on the dependent variables of institutional design with democratic stability. Unlike the transitions to democracy approach, no teleology is implied; natural law is seen as only one type of value rationality among many, whose power to generate democracy depends crucially upon the presence of a supportive social environment.. <br>-Stephen E. Hanson, From Culture to Ideology in Comparative PoliticsI <br>

... not simply a study of Solidarity, but rather an ambitious and pathbreaking effort to analyze the ideological origins of modern democracy by examining its articulation and institutionalization in three diverse revolutionary periods... Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects on institutional practice. - Comparative Politics No short review can do justice to this ambitious and remarkable book. There is nothing similar to it, theoretically, and the author's detailed familiarity with primary and secondary sources related to revolutionary apologetics is exemplary. - Perspectives on Political Science Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects of institutional practice. In essence, she demonstrates how the precise ideological basis of legitimation underlying democratic institutions can be seen as an independent variable with observable effects on the dependent variables of institutional design with democratic stability. Unlike the transitions to democracy approach, no teleology is implied; natural law is seen as only one type of value rationality among many, whose power to generate democracy depends crucially upon the presence of a supportive social environment.. -Stephen E. Hanson, From Culture to Ideology in Comparative PoliticsI

Author Information

Arista Maria Cirtautas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available