Why Communism Did Not Collapse

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Is the difference smarter leaders? Luckier circumstances? Deeper ideological beliefs? Structural flaws or assets? Political strategies of limited opening versus inopportune repression? Differential impact of the international system? This splendid team of authors thoughtfully sheds comparative light on the opaque processes of the collapse or survival of communist regimes." - Jorge I. Dominguez, Harvard University "This is a terrific book. By using paired comparisons of communist regimes that collapsed in 1989-1991 and others that managed to survive, Dimitrov and his fellow authors provoke us to think in new ways about the durability of these types of regimes over time. In this way, the volume moves us beyond cliched discussions about the trials of communism and challenges us to think systematically about what determines regime resilience and failure. I have no doubt that this book will provide important insights for future studies about the entire communist era." - A. James McAdams, University of Notre Dame "Communism has a past, but does it have a future? In this fascinating study, Martin Dimitrov has assembled an impressive set of leading international scholars to examine the staying power of the communist party-states that weathered the 1989-1991 denouement of the Soviet Union and its client states. The result is a theoretically insightful and empirically rich study in comparative politics and Leninist style systems. The volume leaves the reader with the sense that we have not seen the end of collapsing communist-type regimes." - David Shambaugh, The George Washington University and The Brookings Institution