Civil Society, Institutional Change and the Politics of Reform: The Great Transition

This paper examines the relationship between differences in civil society development under communism and the political, economic and institutional change and transformation after 1989. We collected a unique dataset on nature and intensity ofcivil society, institutions, economic reform, democratization

Development by Stealth: The governance of economic integration in European Union’s Eastern peripheries

Introduction: Economic integration, the removal of tariff and non-tariff restrictions and the unification of economic regulations and policies between different economies is one of the most contested issues among economists, political economists and students of economic development. It is claimed to produce public goods by some (Baldwin, 2004; Balassa, 1965), increase patterns of economic and social exclusion by others (Bieler 2002, 2006; Bohle 2006, 2009). In these debates a special role is played by students of the governance of economic integration who claim that the level of progress in, and the developmental outcomes of market integration are largely shaped by the way integration is governed (Drezner, 2007; Mattli and Woods, 2014; Offe, 2014; Bruszt and McDermott, 2014

Global Links, Local Roots: Varieties of Transnationalization and Forms of Civic Integration

In a rapidly changing society such as post-socialist Hungary, are civic organizations that are connected to transnational flows of information, resources, and partnership more likely to be disconnected from their membership base, from other civic organizations, and from other organizations outside the civic sector? Do transnational interactions come at the expense of domestic integration? To answer these questions, the authors conducted a survey of 1,002 civic associations in Hungary in 2002. We identify seven varieties of transnationalization and we distinguish three forms of domestic integration—participation, embededdness, and associativeness. Our findings indicate that civic actors do not face a necessarily forced choice between networks of global reach and those of domestic integration. Many Hungarian civic organizations, in significant numbers, do engage in transnational interactions while simultaneously integrated with their membership base, other civic organizations, and/or other non-civic organizations. In fact, the richest and most encompassing patterns of integration go hand in hand with the deepest and most encompassing patterns of transnationalization. These and related findings indicate that it would be mistaken to assume that transnationalization is necessarily accompanied by the domestic uprooting of civic organizations, whether as cause or as consequence

Transnational Integration Regimes as Development Programs

In drawing on recent advances in international and comparative political economy, this paper argues that diverging paths of institutional development among emerging market democracies are driven by the Transnational Integration Regimes (TIRs), in which a country is embedded. As development programs, TIRs differ in their effectiveness not simply in terms of their incentives and largess and more in terms of their emphasis on building institutional capacities, empowering a variety of domestic state and non-state actors via multiplex methods of assistance and monitoring, and their ability to merge monitoring and learning at both the national and supra-national levels. We develop a comparative framework to show these systematic differences through an analysis of the impact of the EU Accession Process on post-communist countries and NAFTA on Mexico, with special attention to the development of food safety regulatory institutions

Transnational Integration Regimes as Development Programs

In drawing on recent advances in international and comparative political economy, this paper argues that diverging paths of institutional development among emerging market democracies are driven by the Transnational Integration Regimes (TIRs), in which a country is embedded. As development programs, TIRs differ in their effectiveness not simply in terms of their incentives and largess and more in terms of their emphasis on building institutional capacities, empowering a variety of domestic state and non-state actors via multiplex methods of assistance and monitoring, and their ability to merge monitoring and learning at both the national and supra-national levels. We develop a comparative framework to show these systematic differences through an analysis of the impact of the EU Accession Process on post-communist countries and NAFTA on Mexico, with special attention to the development of food safety regulatory institutions

Transnational Integration Regimes as Development Programs. CES Central & Eastern Europe Working Paper Series No. 67, November 2008

In drawing on recent advances in international and comparative political economy, this paper argues that diverging paths of institutional development among emerging market democracies are driven by the Transnational Integration Regimes (TIRs), in which a country is embedded. TIRs are more than trade agreements, aid projects, or harmonization systems and should be viewed as development programs. To date, research on the role of international factors shaping local institutional development has done little to move beyond references to markets and hegemonic hierarchies as the main mechanisms of change, compliance, and commitment. This work is largely based on a depoliticized view of institutional change, and overlooks the growing literature on the evolution of regulative capitalism and the diverse patterns of transnationalizing the modern state. By integrating this latter work into our analysis, we show how TIRs differ less in terms of their incentives and largess and more in terms of their emphasis on building institutional capacities and ability to merge monitoring and learning at both the national and supranational levels. We develop a comparative framework to show these systematic differences through an analysis of the impact of the EU Accession Process on postcommunist countries and NAFTA on Mexico

The Politics of Civic Combinations

In this article, we explore the ways in which partnerships with the state within state-led developmental programs might effect the autonomy of civic organizations (COs) and their readiness to enter in political action. To identify the relationship between collaboration with the state and civic autonomy we draw on data from a survey of 740 Hungarian regional civic associations. We did not find support for the theses that mixing with the state might undermine the autonomy of COs and lead to their political neutralization. Also, we did not find support for the hypotheses that political action is solely about money or it is the property of non-autonomous NGOs. We have identified several mechanisms that allow COs to combine participation in partnership projects with maintained autonomy and political activism

Political Regime Types and Varieties of Post-Socialist Capitalism in the Era of Globalization

For the former state socialist countries 1989 was the year of the starting of the simultaneous transformation of their political regimes and economic systems. This entailed attempts at remaking simultaneously the political and economic institutions of these countries under the conditions of opening up their economies and entering the ‘era of globalization’. These countries have ended a developmental model that was built upon the combination of authoritarian political regime, state control of the economy combined with limited links to the global markets. In 1989 they started their pathways towards some uncertain something else, away from autocracy, command economy and autarchy. The goal of this chapter is to provide a description of and an explanation for the diverging pathways of the post-socialist countries that have combined different political regime types with specific varieties of capitalism and have ended up with dramatically different patterns of insertion into the global markets