The Economist Book of the Week on 29th May 2010 was A Tale of Two Villages by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi. "A dramatic, thought-provoking and sometimes savagely funny account of one of the toughest problems in Europe: the ingrained poverty of the Romanian countryside."

CEU Press launched Masterpieces of History - The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989, the sixth book in the Cold War Reader Series, on May 31 at the Open Society Archives. The volume, based on the ground-breaking research and documentation of the National Security Archive in Washington DC, contains crucial historical documents and is absolutely indispensable for understanding the end of the Cold War.

Prague Tales leads top ten of CEU Press sales after 2000. 2. Memoir of Hungary, 3. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, 4. A Cardboard Castle, 5. Jewish Budapest, 6. A Biographical Dictionary, 7. Stalin – an Unknown Portrait , 8. Uprising in East Germany, 9. A Life under Russian Serfdom, 10. Russian Foreign Policy in Transition





Search the full text of our books:


 

State-Building
A comparative study of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia

Verena Fritz, Overseas Development Institute, London.

Looks at the process of state-building in Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia from a political economy and institutional perspective. Weak and distorted state capacity has come to be widely recognized as a key obstacle to successful transformation—including economic modernization and growth as well as the consolidation of democracy. However, so far little systematic research has been carried out on state capacity per se and on how to explain its development.
The book provides new insights in considering the evolution of Ukraine since 1992, offering an in-depth view of institutional development in crucial areas and thus tracing the process of state-building. It draws comparisons with developments in Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia (based on field research). To capture the process of state-building empirically, focuses on the extraction and expenditure systems which are a central pillar of state capacity and also a central link between citizens and the state. The book also sheds light on how Ukraine’s potential ‘second transition’ currently under way will have an impact on its institutional system.

Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1 The state and state-building definitions and debates; Chapter 2 A framework for assessing states: size, capacity, and quality; Chapter 3 The dynamic of change: state-building as institution building; Chapter 4 A model of post-Soviet state-building trajectories; Chapter 5 State-building in the post-Soviet region; Chapter 6 From Soviet breakdown to disordered independence; Chapter 7 A new trajectory taking shape; Chapter 8 The second transition; Chapter 9 Averting institutional change: the case of Belarus; Chapter 10 Lithuania: Moving towards a Western model; Chapter 11 The ‘authoritarianizing’ route to recovery: the case of Russian tax reform; Chapter 12 Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography

"A masterful survey and analysis of a neglected field of postcommunist studies; namely that of state and institution building. Well-suited for political science courses in comparative politics, institutions, and transitions at the graduate and research levels, this book will be of considerable interest to policymakers in international organizations." - Slavic Review

"Verena Fritz offers a spirited examination of the processes that enhance state capacity and state quality by assessing the fiscal policies and structures within four post-Soviet states with variation in state capacity and state quality outcomes. Combines comprehensive qualitative case studies of these countries with a quantitative chapter that examines key variables in all 15 of the post-Soviet states.
Fritz’s book, which teems with empirical detail and benefits from comprehensive research for four critical cases, overcomes problems of conceptual clarity. Her argument that the timely creation of solid political institutions without the interference of mafia and oligarchic groups leads to better and more effective state-building policies is compelling and persuasive. Moreover, her finding that such policies may occur in both authoritarian and democratic contexts defies much conventional wisdom and provides an interesting challenge for a continued and vibrant scholarly debate". - Comparative Political Studies

"An impressive empirical account of the complex nature of state building in post-Soviet states and convincingly proposes evaluating the success of this process from a new fiscal perspective." - Europe-Asia Studies

" The four case studies provide substantial grist for those interested in generalizations about successful state building. Furthermore, specialists should find the cross-country comparisons on the development of tax regimes interesting. Summing up: recommended." - Choice

2007
384 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-90-5 cloth $47.95 / €36.95 / £24.95
ISBN 978-963-7326-99-8 paperback $24.95 / €18.95 / £16.99

top