Is Communism Returning?

Like the “transition paradigm” before it, the concept of democratic backsliding threatens to flatten our perceptions of complex political realities. Examples from East-Central Europe illustrate the ambiguous dynamics at play…

Except for the Baltic states, the countries of the former Soviet Union may be less democratic today than in the last years of the USSR.

One of the most important events in post-Cold War international affairs, NATO enlargement is even more of a democratic milestone for the countries of Eastern Europe than is the expansion…