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Exemplars, Analogies, and Menus: Eastern Europe in Cross Regional Comparisons[Note 1. Comparisons between Eastern Europe‐Africa (post‐colonial andduring the 1990s) were ...]
Author(s) -
Jacoby Wade
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/0952-1895.00113
Subject(s) - sketch , german , democracy , capitalism , latin americans , political science , state (computer science) , middle east , sociology , regional science , political economy , positive economics , history , economics , law , computer science , archaeology , algorithm , politics
This article evaluates three provocative cross‐regional comparisons that use Eastern European cases. It begins by defending such comparisons against serious objections emphasizing Leninist legacies. Books by Offe, Greskovits, and Henderson et. al. form the foundation for a discussion of comparisons to the Eastern German, Latin American, and East Asian NIC cases, respectively. The different comparative approaches are assessed with reference to three blocks of issues: the possibility of achieving democratic capitalism “by design,” the strength of social responses to economic hardship, and the viability of state instruments to keep reforms moving. Characterizing the different approaches as reliant upon “exemplars, analogies, and menus,” the article assesses the outcomes of East European transformations at the ten‐year mark. It concludes with a sketch of a partially convergent agenda for further research along all three lines.