The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe - Public Preferences and Policy Reforms

How does democracy work in the new democracies of Eastern Europe? Do the people actually rule as one would expect in a democracy or do the legacies of communism and the constraints of the transition weaken popular control? This book presents a new framework for conceptualizing and measuring democratic quality and applies this framework to multiple countries and policy areas in the region. It defines democratic quality as the degree to which citizens are able to hold leaders accountable for their performance and keep policy close to their preferences. Its surprising conclusion, drawn from large-N statistical analyses and small-N case studies, is that citizens exercise considerable control over their rulers in Eastern European democracies. Despite facing difficult economic circumstances and an unfavorable inheritance from communism, these countries rapidly constructed relatively high-quality democracies. • Develops a new and clear concept of democratic quality, a concept that is often invoked but rarely defined clearly • The book provides comprehensive coverage of all the democratic post-communist states from the beginning of the transition to the present • The conclusions of the book challenge conventional wisdom by finding that democracy in these countries works better than is commonly assumed

1. Introduction Part I. Conceptual Analysis 2. Assessing the quality of democracy Part II. Statistical Analysis: Introduction to the Statistical Analyses 3. Electoral accountability 4. Mandate responsiveness 5. Policy responsiveness Part III. Case Study Analysis: Introduction to the Case Studies 6. The politics of pension reforms 7. The politics of housing reforms Part IV. Implications 8. Explaining democratic quality 9. Conclusions