Centre for European Studies

School of International Studies

Jawaharlal Nehru University

M. Phil Course

Course Title: Politics and Society in Central and Eastern Europe

Teacher: Shashikant Jha

Credits: Three

Instruction Method: Assignments and End-Semester Examination

Course Duration: One Semester (winter)

Contact Hours: Four Per Week

Course Content:

I. Political System: the Concept

II. Political-Economic Processes and Social Formation under Socialism, 1945-89.

III. Understanding systemic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe

IV. Institution Building and Political Process

· Democracy and Democratization

· Constitutional Development and Evolution of the State Structure

· The Electoral Process and the Party System

· The Judicial System

· Ethnicity and Nationalism

V. Social Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe-- Issues and Trends

· The New elite - Character, Priorities and Role

· Economic Transition and the Role of the Market

· Media and Civil Society

· Ecology, Environment and Gender Issues in Changing Socio-economic Scenario

Suggested Readings

• Berglund, Sten and Dellenbrant, Jan Ake., eds., The New Democracies in Eastern Europe: Party Systems and Political Cleavage, 2^nd ed. (Edward Elgar, 1994)

• Bourne, Angela K., “Domestic Politics of Regionalism and European Integration”, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol.4, No.3, 2003, Pp. 347-363

• Brown, J. F., Hopes and Shadows: Eastern Europe after Communism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994)

• Cichowski, Raphael, A., “Western Dreams, Eastern Realities: Support for EU in Central and Eastern Europe”, Comparative Political Studies, Vol.33, No. 10, December 2000, Pp. 1243-78

• Cohen, Lenard J., Broken Bonds: Yugoslavia’s Disintegration and Balkan Politics in Transition, 2^nd ed. (Westview Press, 1995)

• Dawisha, Karen and Parrot, Brush, The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

• ----------------------, Politics, Power and Democracy in South-East Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

• Friedman, Francine, The Bosnian Muslims: Denial of a Nation (Westview Press, 1996)

• Gellner, Ernest, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals (New York, 1994)

• Higley, John, et al, “The Persistence of Post-Communist Elites”, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No.2 April 1996, Pp. 133-47

• Hobsbawm, E. J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth and Reality (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1990)

• Jaction, Robert H. and James, Alan, eds., States in a Changing World: A Contemporary Analysis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993

• Jha, Shashikant, “Systemic Change in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe” Alokesh Barua, ed., Global Order: Recent Changes and Responses (New Delhi, 1992).

• ----------------, ed. Ethnicity and Nation-Building in Eastern Europe (New Delhi, 1998)

• --------------------, “Democracy, Parties and Politics in Hungary”, International Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3, 1999, Pp. 277- 92

• -----------------, “The Muslims of Bosnia: Crisis of Identity or Making of a Nation”, Journal of Peace Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, May-June 2000, Pp. 41-65

• -----------------, and Bhaswati Sarkar, eds., Amidst Turbulence and Hope: Transition in Russia and Eastern Europe (New Delhi: 2002)

• Keane, John, ed., Civil Society and the State (New York: Verso, 1998).

• Kischbaum, Stanislav J., A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996)

• Mahmutcehnajic, Rusmir, The Denial of Bosnia (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000)

• Miller, Robert F., ed., The Developments of Civil Society in Communist Systems (New York: Allen and Unwin, 1992)

• Nelson, Joan, ed., A Precarious Balance: Democracy and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe (Washington DC: Overseas Development Council, 1994)

• Potter, David, Goldblatt, David, Kiloh, Magaret and Lewis, Paul, Democratisation ( Polity Press, 1997)

• Pridham G. and Lewis, Paul G., eds., Stabilising Fragile Democracies: Camparing New Party Systems in Southern and Eastern Europe (London: Routledge, 1996)

• -----------------------------, Building Democracy?: The International Dimension of Democratisation in Eastern Europe ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994)

• Radu, Michael, “Why Eastern and Central Europe Look West”. Orbis, Vol.41, No.1, Winter 1995, Pp.39-52

• Ramet, Sabrina Petra, Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformations, 2^nd ed. (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1995)

• ---------------------------, Balkan Bebel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to Ethnic War (Westview Press, 1996)

• Ratesh, Nestor, Romania: The Entangled Revolution (Washington DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1990)

• Rupsinghe Kumar, et al., eds., Ethnicity and Conflict in a Post-Communist World (London, St. Martin’s Press, 1992).

• Sarkar, Bhaswati and Jha, Shashikant, “The Hungarian Minorities: Issues and Concerns” International Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2, April-June, 2002, Pp. 139-64

• Sarkar, Bhaswati, Balancing the Nation-State: The Hungarian Experience (New Delhi, 2004)

• Sartori, Giovanni, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976)

• Taras, Raymond, Consolidating Democracy in Poland (Westview Press, 1995)

• Text of the Constitutions of the Select Countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

• Tismaneanu,Vladimir, Reinventing Politics: Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel (New York: free Press, 1992)

• Tokes, Rudolf, Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reforms, Social Change and Political Succession in Hungary (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

• Waller, Michael and Myant, Martin, eds., Parties, Trade Unions and Society in East-Central Europe (Frank Cass, 1994)

• Wightman, Gordon, ed., Party Formation in East-Central Europe (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1996)

Journals

• American Political Science Review

• British Journal of Political Science
• Communist and Post-Communist Studies
• Comparative Politics
• Current History
• East European Constitutional Review
• East European Quarterly
• Europe-Asia Studies
• Government and Opposition
• International Studies

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