Freedom's ordeal : the struggle for human rights and democracy in post-Soviet states / Peter Juviler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Juviler, Peter H.

Series:

Pennsylvania studies in human rights.

Pennsylvania studies in human rights

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human rights--Former Soviet republics--History.

Human rights.

Former Soviet republics--Politics and government.

Former Soviet republics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Fifteen countries have emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Freedom's Ordeal recounts the struggles of these newly independent nations to achieve freedom and to establish support for fundamental human rights. Although history has shown that states emerging from collapsed empires rarely achieve full democracy in their first try, Peter Juviler analyzes these successor states as crucial and not always unpromising tests of democracy's viability in postcommunist countries. Taking into account the particularly difficult legacies of Soviet communism, Freedom's Ordeal is distinguished by its careful tracing of the historical background, with special attention to human rights before, during, and after communism. Juviler suggests that the culture and practices of despotism may wither wherever modernization conflicts with tyranny and with the curtailment or denial of democratic rights and freedoms.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Getting to Democracy

Chapter 2. Changing Russia

Chapter 3. The Contradictions of Communism

Chapter 4. Restructuring Rights

Chapter 5. Free at Last? Democracy in the Newly Independent States

Chapter 6. Varieties of Authoritarianism

Chapter 7. Democracy for Whom? The Baltic States

Chapter 8. Russia’s Third Try

Chapter 9. Russia: The Context of Freedom

Chapter 10. The Struggle Continues

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-271) and index.

ISBN:

1-283-21175-0

9786613211750

0-8122-0239-2

OCLC:

607830371