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Since 2005, Nepal has been engaged in a complex political transition that has resulted in the termination of Nepal's 240 year old monarchy. Currently, the progress of Nepal's political transition confronts the dual challenges of writing a constitution and mainstreaming the Maoists and their thousands of combatants, who had engaged in a decade long insurgency against the state. Growing differences between the radical Maoists and Nepal's other political parties have repeatedly blocked Nepal's attempt to institutionalize democracy. How does one study Nepal's democratic transition? How does Nepal's case relate to the wider scholarship on transition to democracy? This article critically applies the modes of transition approach to analyze Nepal's various political transitions. The modes of transition approach with its emphasis on elite interactions during periods of transition and their enduring impact of such interactions on the regime that emerges offers a valuable analytical framework to examine series of transitions in Nepal. Many of the initial assumptions of the modes of transitions approach deriving from the experiences of Southern Europe and Latin America have recently been reexamined in the context of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe. Do Nepal's transitions resonate with earlier patterns of third wave democratizations in Southern Europe and Latin America or do they show greater similarity with what some describe as the fourth wave of democratic transitions in post-communist Eastern Europe? This article critically applies the major premises of this approach to Nepali case assessing their validity as well as shortcomings. The central thesis underlying this paper is that the modes of transition approach, though useful in its focus on the crucial role of actors and strategies as key to understanding Nepal's political transition, fails to account for several critical factors such as the role of external actors, the positive role of mass mobilization and leading democratic agenda of radical forces. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section lays out the theoretical framework related to the modes of transition; the second part examines Nepal's transitions applying the key concepts of modes of transition approach; and the third section presents a critical assessment of problems and prospects of consolidation of Nepal's current efforts to achieve a democratic system.

Der Beitrag kennzeichnet die bisherige Transformationsformung als "Defizitforschung". Hier erfolgt die Analyse von Transformationsprozessen als diagnostische Benennung von Mängeln und Defiziten von Gesellschaften, angesichts einer doppelten Zielperspektive von parlamentarischer Demokratie und kapitalistischer Marktwirtschaft. Solche Mängelkataloge setzen voraus, dass ein vorgeblich den Veränderungslinien der "westlichen" Gesellschaften entnommenes bzw. aus deren idealtypischer Überzeichnung abgeleitetes Modell gebildet und dann als maßgeblicher Vergleichsrahmen den Gesellschaften in Ost- und Mittelosteuropa übergestülpt wird.Weiterhin wird dieses Verfahren mit dem Anspruch verknüpft, das so gewonnene Modell prinzipiell als positiv zu bewerten, d.h. ihm eine positive Normativität zukommen zu lassen. Dabei wird zwangsläufig abgesehen von den zahllosen manifesten Zwängen (im Falle Deutschlands, Italiens und Japans also von der Auferlegung durch einige Siegermächte des Zweiten Weltkrieges), den Opfern und Restriktionen, die diese Verläufe gefordert haben (und z.T. immer noch fordern), ganz abgesehen von den latenten Nebenfolgen. Der Autor warnt vor den Einseitigkeiten des Doppelcharakters von Analyse und Handlungsanweisung in der Transformationsforschung. (ICA2)

"Taiwan's emergent nationhood poses a fundamental challenge to the global political order. Following a remarkable transition from authoritarian rule to robust democracy, this island society has become a prosperous but widely unrecognized nation-state for which no uncontested sovereign space exists. Increasingly vigorous assertions of Taiwanese identity expose the fragility of relationships between the United States and other great powers that assume Taiwan will eventually unite with China. Perhaps because of their precarious international position, Taiwanese have embraced cosmopolitan culture and democratic institutions more fully than most Asians. The 2014 Sunflower Movement, in which demonstrators occupied parliament to protest a free trade agreement with China, thrust Taiwan politics into the global media spotlight, as did the resounding victory of the once-illegal Democratic Progressive Party in 2016. Taiwan in Dynamic Transition provides an up-to-date treatment of contemporary Taiwan, highlighting Taiwan's emergent nationhood and its implications for world politics. The book provides a new interpretive framework and series of case studies that together construct a vivid picture of how contemporary Taiwanese think about their nationhood, with specific examples of nation-building and democratization in social practice. The Taiwan case has important implications for broader themes and preoccupations in contemporary thought, such as consideration of why transitions in the aftermath of the Arab Spring have sputtered or failed, while Taiwan has evolved into a stable and prosperous democratic society. Taiwan serves as a test case for nation- and state-building, the formation of national identity, and the emergence of democratic norms in real time"--

Klappentext: From the mid-1970s, the awareness of injustice and apartheid in South Africa increased in the media and in scholarship. From the secular perspective, it was no surprise to find a Christian denomination directly involved in the formulation of the apartheid-doctrine. However, it was far more surprising to fing opposition leaders, even many members of the African National Congress, referring in their strucggle to religious doctrines. South Africa imposed a challenge to all the voices that claimed that the process of democratisation was only possible through secularisation. The contributions to this book represent a spectrum of religious and political perspectives in South Africa in their social context. Some tackle the important question of transformation within religions. Since the period of transition and democracy, the country is witness to a re-ordering and re-classification of values and priorities within society and religious traditions. The contributions also focus on the possible role of religions in fashioning values and identities on a broad national scale. They subject to evaluation multi-culturalism, education, and development under the impact of religious values, ethics and symbols.

Historically, there has been little agreement between advocates of radical financial reform and socialist theoreticians. However, in the new circumstances of the twenty-first century, a productive synthesis of these two traditions might be possible. Drawing on the franchise model of credit creation elaborated by Robert C. Hockett and the dysfunctions created by the extreme concentration of private financial institutions, this article outlines a reform agenda that would both democratize finance and facilitate the flow of funds into valuable forms of investment that are currently starved for resources. If the new institutions envisioned in this proposal were able to take root and expand, they could ultimately facilitate a transition to socialism, defined as the subordination of the market to democratic politics.

Describes the possibility of free and fair elections under difficult conditions and the impact on party systems and the mass media; Ghana, Mali, Niger, Zambia, Tanzania, and Madagascar. Discusses the effects of ethnic tensions, clientism, limited democratic experience, and other factors.