The Ashgate Research Companion to the Politics of Democratization in Europe: Concepts and Histories (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780754672500)

'Democratization' is a concept often used in academic book titles, yet not many of them deal with the initial breakthrough of democratization. This research companion presents an alternative view to the widespread assumption that Western democracies should be the normative reference for the study of democratization elsewhere. Rather, it questions the universal validity of such an assumption by searching the history of European politics and by paying specific attention to the struggles of democratization accomplished outside Western Europe. The authors apply a comparative approach to analyzing debates in the primary sources in a number of countries and languages and situate the results into a broader European context. Focusing on European democratization from different historical and analytical perspectives, they discuss the politics, concepts and histories involved in democratization as a complex of changes that has altered the conditions of political action and debate in the continent for the past two centuries.

Author: Tuija Pulkkinen
ISBN-10: 0754672506
ISBN-13: 9780754672500
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 12/19/2008
Pages: 436
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.32lbs

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2009 pg. 173