EU Enlargement and Democratic Consolidation in Post-Communist Europe

Module code: PL7587

This module examines the interplay of domestic and international factors in determining the effects of regime transition and the success of democratisation in post-communist Europe.

It focuses in particular on the influence of the EU, and the transformation of the 10 Central and East European states which have already become members (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), while also looking at potential members in the Western Balkans, the European Neighbourhood Policy and relations with Russia.

It considers both the common and the individual political problems facing the states of Central and Eastern Europe, and investigates the challenges posed by the attempt to integrate them into an undivided Europe. The approach is comparative, and should also prove useful in studying the consolidation of democracy in other parts of the globe.