Was heißt demokratische Konsolidierung?: Über einige theoretische Konsequenzen der osteuropäischen Regimewechsel

Abstract: The break-up of the communist Eastern Bloc in 1989 was followed by intense efforts to reform the countries of the region politically, economically and socially. Parallel to this a sometimes heated debate arose about how to analyze these processes of change scientifically. This essay tries to adapt the actor-oriented approach called transitology and consolidology, which was formulated in the context of regime changes in Southern Europe and Latin America, so as to make it compatible with the differing experiences of systemic changes in Eastern Europe. The aim of this endeavor is to facilitate intra- as well as interregional comparisons of different instances of democratization. Focusing on a discussion of various versions of the concept of democratic consolidation, the author reconceptualizes this central term and clarifies its relationship to the as well reformulated overarching concept of regime change. The concluding chapter contains a typology of different versions of the concept of democratic consolidation to be found in the relevant literature. In an annex the paper is supplemented by a collection of various definitions of democratic consolidation by the most important and most often cited theorists in this field.;