Lessons in Democracy

An edited collection of papers from a conference on democratization held in 1997 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland and co-sponsored by the University of Rochester's Center for Polish and Central European Studies. The work looks at the various political and economic issues surrounding the rapid democratization of Central and Eastern Europe since the demise of the Soviet Union. _Lessons in Democracy_ focuses upon the following issues: the relationship between democracy, nationalism and ethnic relations; the application of rational choice theory to democratic politics; the historical roots of the democratizing movements in the Eastern bloc; the connections between liberation of work and productivity; the economic aspects of Eastern and Central Europe's transition to democracy; the problems of dealing with the communist past; and the importance of building democratic institutions on a country'sown traditions.Ewa Hauser is Director of the University of Rochester's Center for Polish and Central European Studies; Jacek Wasilewski is Professor of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University.