11 results on '"Bernhard, Michael"'
Search Results
2. Three Generations of Research on Post Communist Politics—A Sketch.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael, Jasiewicz, Krzysztof, and Ekiert, Grzegorz
- Subjects
- *
DEMOCRATIZATION , *POSTCOMMUNISM , *POLITICAL science ,CENTRAL European politics & government ,EASTERN European politics & government - Abstract
This essay outlines theoretical visions or paradigms that have underpinned empirical and historical work on the great transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Such paradigms shaped “sociological imaginations” and analytical lenses through which scholars generated important questions and developed their research interests and projects. The study of post-communism was influenced by three such paradigms: the first focused on the immediate communist past as the main constraint on post-1989 transformations; the second attempted to transcend the specificities of post-communism and integrate the study of the region with the general comparative politics enterprise; and finally, the third signified the return to a disciplined exploration of historical and cultural contexts and their role in shaping the outcomes of transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Out of Eastern Europe: Legacies of Violence and the Challenge of Multiple Transitions.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael, Jasiewicz, Krzysztof, and Subotić, Jelena
- Subjects
- *
HUMAN rights , *TRANSITIONAL justice , *COMMUNISM , *POLITICAL science ,FORMER Yugoslav republics - Abstract
What is the contribution of Eastern European scholarship to the study of human rights and transitional justice? This essay takes stock of the most significant empirical and theoretical contributions of the study of Eastern Europe, specifically the study of the difficult case of the former Yugoslavia, to the scholarship on transitional justice. I identify three main challenges the scholarship on the former Yugoslavia has presented to the larger field of transitional justice: the political challenge of multiple overlapping transitions, the inability of international institutions to effect domestic social change, and the dangers of politicization of past violence remembrance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. East European Studies.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael, Jasiewicz, Krzysztof, and Hozić, Aida A.
- Subjects
- *
AREA studies , *POWER (Social sciences) , *CRIME , *POLITICAL science ,EASTERN European politics & government ,UNITED States politics & government - Abstract
The question “Whither Eastern Europe?” prompts the author to reflect upon the interplay of area studies and political power in the United States. Concerns about the future of East European studies tend to originate outside of academe: in the real or imagined declining relevance of Europe in the U.S. foreign policy orbit. Sadly, perhaps, as the region’s complex history and contemporary politics seem to attest, it is highly unlikely that it will lose its strategic importance anytime soon. Therefore, the most important dimension of East European continued significance might be the normative one. Whither to/for whom? Who are the audiences that we are addressing and what is our responsibility to them? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Comparative Opportunities: The Evolving Study of Political Behavior in Eastern Europe.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael, Jasiewicz, Krzysztof, and Tucker, Joshua A.
- Subjects
- *
VOTING , *POLITICAL sociology , *PRACTICAL politics , *POLITICAL science ,EASTERN European politics & government - Abstract
As the theoretical rationale (and funding opportunities!) for considering Eastern Europe as a distinct region diminish as we move farther away from the momentous events of 1989, the value of including East-Central European countries in comparative studies has only increased. This article outlines how comparative studies of political behavior involving East-Central European countries have evolved in the author’s own research from comparative studies including Russia along with four East European countries, to more broadly based comparative studies including multiple East European countries and former Soviet Republics, to studies where behavior is analyzed in both East European countries and more established democracies, and finally to large cross-national studies focused on questions related to post-communist politics (namely, the legacy of communism on post-communist attitudes and behavior) but relying on the comparative analysis of survey data from countries around the world. In a way, the research has come full circle, from studies of East European political behavior to better understand East European political behavior, to studies including East European countries to better understand general questions of political behavior not specific to post-communist countries, to now the most extensive comparative studies that are, however, designed once again to better understand East European political attitudes and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Robust Finding or Measurement Artifact? Reconsidering the Relationship between Democracy and International Conflict.
- Author
-
Bayer, Reşat and Bernhard, Michael
- Subjects
- *
INTERNATIONAL relations , *OPERATIONAL definitions , *DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL systems , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
The idea that democracies are less apt to engage in conflict with each other is the central finding of contemporary international relations. Yet at the same time, the operationalization of the concept of democracy in this literature has been relatively unreflective, with little critical consideration about how to measure what we mean by democracy. Since the mid-1990s the vast majority of studies that test for the effect of democracy on conflict have relied upon Polity to measure democracy. Given that important concerns have been raised about Polity previously (Gleditsch and Ward 1997), reliance solely upon one instrument may put such findings on too thin an evidentiary basis. In this paper we raise additional concerns about Polity, most notably that there is a mismatch between conceptualization of democracy as a regime type and using an interval scalar measure like Polity. We argue that complex types are better captured by "object concepts" that are best measured as dichotomous variables. If our contention is correct, we would expect to find that models that use a dichotomous coding provide a better fit for the data than models using Polity, or, even different findings, if a binary measure is better suited to capturing the concept of democracy. In this paper we look at what happens when we substitute a binary coding of democracy (Bernhard, Nordstrom and Reenock 2001) for Polity. We find that the democratic peace is robust using BNR, and that it even improves the fit of the data to the models. Other important findings on democracy and conflict, notably Mansfield and Snyder's (1995a) contention that democratizing countries are more prone to engage in interstate conflicts, are not strongly supported by the substitution of BNR for Polity. Both of these findings give credence to our contention that a binary coding has advantages in capturing the concept of democracy. At minimum, it suggests that findings based only on interval scalar measures like Polity, should be checked for robustness with binary measures that capture democracy as a type. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
7. Regressive Socioeconomic Distribution and Democratic Survival.
- Author
-
Reenock, Christopher, Bernhard, Michael, and Sobek, David
- Subjects
- *
SOCIOECONOMICS , *INCOME inequality , *EQUALITY , *DISTRIBUTION (Economic theory) , *DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
There is consensus that socioeconomic distribution will threaten the survival of democracies when it provokes popular pressures for redistribution and elite resistance to such demands. Despite this consensus, the evidence in support of this claim is inconsistent. We believe these inconsistencies derive from the literature's assumption that relative forms of distribution, like income inequality, adequately reflect this combination of pressure and resistance. We disagree with this assumption, arguing instead that when developmental context is taken into consideration, absolute forms of distribution, like basic needs deprivation, are better indicators of these conditions. Specifically, we argue that when needs deprivation exists in the face of enhanced economic development, a pattern we refer to as regressive socioeconomic distribution, conditions are most ripe for crisis. Using event history analysis on a sample composed of all democracies from 1961-1995, we confirm that regressive socioeconomic distribution increases the risk of breakdown. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
8. Methodological Disputes in Comparative Politics.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael
- Subjects
- *
COMPARATIVE government , *COMPARATIVE studies , *POLITICAL science , *COMPARATIVE economics , *RATIONAL choice theory , *BOUNDED rationality , *PARADIGM (Theory of knowledge) - Abstract
This article gauges the impact on comparative politics of the methodological turn in political science through a review of four recent books on the role of comparative historical analysis in the subfield. Two volumes—one edited by James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer and the other edited by Henry Brady and David Collier-defend the accomplishments and strengths of comparative historical analysis. In contrast, the book by Barbara Geddes advocates a scientific approach combining rational choice theory with regression. The article includes a discussion of the interviews conducted by Gerardo Munck and Richard Snyder with prominent comparativists and questions whether strategies of inference should be our most pressing concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Economic Performance, Institutional Intermediation, and Democratic Survival.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael, Nordstrom, Timothy, and Reenock, Christopher
- Subjects
- *
DEMOCRACY -- Economic aspects , *ECONOMIC development , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
The breakdown of democracies has long been associated with poor economic performance. This study attempts to determine whether different configurations of democratic institutions can mediate the effects of poor economic performance. Using an original data set that includes all democracies from the period 1919 to 1995, we use continuous-time duration analysis to test hypotheses derived from the literature on democratization. Specifically, we test the interaction of party system and the configuration of legislative and executive power (parliamentarism and presidentialism) with economic performance to explain the likelihood of breakdown. Results suggest that majoritarian variants of democracy are more resistant to economic contraction than pluralist ones. Under conditions of economic growth, pluralist democracies outperform majoritarian ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2001
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
10. Civil society and democratic transition in East Central Europe.
- Author
-
Bernhard, Michael
- Subjects
- *
POLITICAL science ,EASTERN European politics & government - Abstract
Clarifies the meaning of `civil society' to understand its relationship to democratization in the East Central European context and on a general theoretical level. Background development of a civil society; Difference of dissidence to opposition in relation to communist reconstruction of a civil society; Democratization and reconstitution of civil society; Conclusions.
- Published
- 1993
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Reconsidering Democracy and International Conflict: Does Conceptualization and Measurement Matter?
- Author
-
Bayer, Resat and Bernhard, Michael
- Subjects
- *
DEMOCRACY , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *INTERNATIONAL conflict , *GEOPOLITICS , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
Are findings on democracy and conflict a product of unexamined conceptualassumptions about the nature of democracy inherent in the way we measureit? It is rare to find an empirical international conflict piece that doesnot mention that democracies do not fight each other. Very few studiescontradict this proposition. At the same time, there is reason forcaution due to how democracy is commonly operationalized and the conceptualassumptions inherent in the dataStudies that test for the effect of democracy most often rely on the Politydataset. Other authors have raised significant reservations about itsuncritical adoption (Gleditsch and Ward 1997). Our central concern is thatstudies which see democracy as affecting conflict may be picking uprelative differences between countries on the interval scale used by politythat do not capture qualitative differences between democracy anddictatorship. Would such findings hold if we considered democracy not inrelative but absolute terms? If we treated as democracies, only thosecountries that meet minimal standards (and operationalized it as a binaryvariable) like the literature on democratic survival (Gasiorowski,1995,Przeworski et al. 2000, Bernhard, Nordstrom, and Reenock2001), would we seedifferences?Two areas where past studies have strongly differed on this issue are theliteratures on the effects of democratization on conflict and theperformance of democracies in warfare. Mansfield and Snyder (1995)maintain that democratizing countries are more prone to interstateconflicts, while others have challenged their operationalization and do notfind a negative effect (see Thompson and Tucker 1997). Similarly withregard to the "democratic triumph" thesis (Lake 1992), there isdisagreement as to whether democracies are more successful inwarfare. Reiter and Stam (2002) find that democracies do win more butDesch (2002, 2003) challenges their findings and strongly criticizes theircases.In this study, we retest several important empirical works on democracy andinternational conflict using a measure of democracy, based on Dahl'sminimum criteria for polyarchy (1971). We use this measure to test therobustness of works such as "The Classical Liberals Were Right: Democracy,Interdependence, and Conflict: 1950-1985," (Oneal and Russett1997). "Democracies and War" (Reiter and Stam 2002), and "IncompleteDemocratization and the Outbreak of Military Disputes" (Mansfield andSnyder 2002). Our purpose is to see if their results are an artifact ofthe relative measure of democracy in the polity data, or whether they holdwhen we think of democracy as needing to meet certain minimum conditions. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
Catalog
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.