Africa in World Politics addresses the effects of major currents in Africa and global politics upon each other and the ramifications of these interrelationships for contemporary theories of international and comparative politics. This third edition focuses on the changing state system in sub-Saharan Africa. The nation-state as we know it is a legacy of European rule in Africa, and the primacy of the nation-state remains a bedrock of most contemporary theories of international relations. Yet in the fourth decade of Africa's independence, this colonial inheritance is being challenged as never before with potentially far-reaching implications for Africa, and for world politics as a whole. The authors examine a variety of changing state systems on the continent, ranging from the rapidly failing Western-style states (Rwanda, the Sudan, and others), to new states emerging from old ones (Eritrea from Ethiopia), to states becoming radically decentralized (Ethiopia, Uganda).

This second edition of the highly regarded Politics in Developing Countries again presents case studies of experiences with democracy in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, along with the editors' synthesis of the factors that facilitate and obstruct the development of democracy around the world. The new edition adds a chapter on South Africa and brings the other nine studies current through 1994.

The recent developments covered in the book include:

• the reemergence of democratic politics in Chile
• the impeachment of President Collor and the crisis of democracy in Brazil
• the growing pressure for substantive democratization in Mexico
• the 1994 elections in Chile, Brazil, and Mexico
• the leadership transition in Turkey following the death of President Ozal
• the growing ethnic and religious strife in India
• the overthrow and reemergence of democracy in Thailand and the country's economic boom
• the quest for democratic consolidation in South Korea under new President Kim Young Sam
• the political and economic crisis in Nigeria
• the difficulties facing the one-party dominant regime in Senegal following the 1993 elections
• the 1994 elections and democratic transition in South Africa

Designed specifically for students and other readers near to the subject, this new single-volume version of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Democracy features more than 300 entries covering democratic concepts, countries, and individuals.

The Concise Encyclopedia of Democracy is a single-volume version of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Democracy. Not a condensation, the new Concise Encyclopedia of Democracy was created to address the specific requirements of high school and introductory college courses and is geared to the special needs of high school and college students, and the general public.

The more than 300 articles in The Concise Encyclopedia of Democracy include concepts, countries, and individuals, emphasizing the historical and practical, rather than the theoretical. While the coverage is international in scope, particular emphasis is given to the American experience and the democracies that are part of the high school curriculum and introductory college courses.

Especially valuable to the student library patron are new entries on the Constitution and general government practices that meet The National Standards in Civics and Government. The 150 maps, photographs, charts, and timelines are designed to present the researcher with information in a concise, visual form.

In this book, distinguished U.S. and Russian scholars analyze the great challenges confronting post-Communist Russia and examine the Yeltsin government's attempts to deal with them. Focusing on problems of state- and nation-building, economic reform, demilitarization, and the definition of Russia's national interests in its relations with the outside world, the authors trace the complex interplay between the Communist legacy and efforts to chart new directions in both domestic and foreign policy. They give special attention to the defeat of liberal reformers in the latest parliamentary elections and to the implications of that shift for Russia's domestic and foreign policy in the years ahead.

Western analysts have become increasingly alarmed with Russia's assertive foreign policy -- in both the economic and the political/strategic spheres -- toward the new states of the former Soviet Union. Many have cited Russia's military interventions in Georgia, Tajikistan, and Moldova as signals of Russia's new imperialist designs. Russian policy toward the Baltic states has also spurred alarm. While Russian troops pulled out of the Baltic states as planned, the Russian Foreign Ministry has nonetheless threatened economic sanctions against Estonia and Latvia if citizenship rights for Russians are not further delineated in these states. Beyond the territory of the former Soviet Union, Russian assertiveness regarding sanctions against Serbia, NATO expansion, and arms trade with developing countries has compelled several analysts to speak of a renewal of Russian expansionist tendencies and hence a return of Cold War tension between West and East.

The increasing prospect of a communist and nationalist victory in Russia's parliamentary elections this month has fueled doubts about whether Russia's presidential election, scheduled for next June, will take place.

Even before President Boris Yeltsin's latest heart attack, the odds were only 50-50 for a democratic transfer of power, which has never occurred in Russia or the Soviet Union. There is a determination to preserve the status quo on the part of those who have prospered under Yeltsin's reign - whether Russia's new banking tycoons, gas and oil executives or the entourage of Kremlin aides that surrounds Yelstin. Re-electing Yeltsin, of course, has been their preferred strategy.

Full article available with purchase.

Initially printed as "Signal Our Support for Democracy," Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1995.

Michael McFaul comments that the process leading up to the parliamentary vote on Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's government in Jul 1995 suggests that the future of Russia's fragile democracy may not be so bleak.

Full article available with purchase.

After Chechnya, many analysts predicted that Russia's flirtation with democracy was over. However, the process leading up to the parliamentary vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's government last week suggests that the future of Russia's fragile democracy may not be so bleak. In fact, the so-called governmental crisis of the last two weeks has demonstrated that respect for the democratic process by Russian politicians is greater now than perhaps at any time in Russian history.

Full article available with subscription.

On December 10, 1994, Russian president Boris Yeltsin ordered Russian armed forces into the Republic of Chechnya. For eight weeks thereafter, the Russian military waged a poorly organized but brutally destructive assault on the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Five years after the dramatic fall of communism in Eastern Europe, there is an opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of different forms of liberalization.

The most obvious and controversial difference between reform strategies is in the pace of transition. Previous theories of development have focused on the slow growth of Third World countries into modern economies. Some experts have ascribed current failures in Eastern Europe to the instantaneous liberalization of economies and the forceful application of tight monetary policies.

But this theory is contradicted by the fact that the most successful Eastern European countries, Poland and the Czech Republic, are those that initiated the most dramatic and rapid reforms. The authors of Economic Transition show how educate, relatively modern societies can make major changes in political and economic institutions almost overnight.

Economic Transition in Eastern Europe and Russia is a work of substantial academic merit that is also accessible to the interested layperson. Thirteen essays by acknowledged economic experts explore the rapid changes in the transition economies of Eastern Europe, with discussions on political and economic freedom, monetary control and privatization, labor markets and social safety nets, and taxation and crime.