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Research on the situation of women in Czechoslovakia turned out to provide insights into the Communist Party's policy making, goals, and capacity to engineer change in everyday life. Adapted from the source document.

Abstract:
The December 2011 protests in Russia raised the question of whether the Putin regime could fall to a "color" or electoral revolution like those that have ousted other autocratic regimes in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia over the past decade and a half. Valerie Bunce and I concluded that, in these prior cases, the main factor distinguishing successful from failed attempts was the extent to which an "electoral model" of regime change was implemented. Structural factors, particularly a vulnerable incumbent, played some role in the success of electoral breakthroughs, but the main explanation, we found, lay in the implementation of the electoral model.

The December 2011 protests in Russia raised the question of whether the Putin regime could fall to a "color" or electoral revolution like those that have ousted other autocratic regimes in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia over the past decade and a half. Valerie Bunce and I concluded that, in these prior cases, the main factor distinguishing successful from failed attempts was the extent to which an "electoral model" of regime change was implemented. Structural factors, particularly a vulnerable incumbent, played some role in the success of electoral breakthroughs, but the main explanation, we found, lay in the implementation of the electoral model. Adapted from the source document.

Over a decade has passed since the heady days of 1989 and 1990 when communist governments fell one after the other and almost all political parties taking part in elections shared the same goals: Democracy, the Market, and Back to Europe. In December 2002, the efforts of the new leaders of these countries to 'return to Europe' bore fruit in an event that many had in 1989 regarded as too farfetched to imagine, the invitation of most of the countries in the region to join the EU in 2004 or 2007. The culmination of a decade-long process of harmonization and negotiation, this invitation symbolized the success of these countries in instituting political democracies and market economies. But how complete is this process, particularly in the political realm?

Gail Kligman analyzes the reproductive policies of the
Ceausescu regime and the responses of experts and the
population to those policies. Drawing on extensive interviews
with ordinary men and women as well as experts and on
archival research, the author provides a wealth of informa-
tion about demographic trends and reproductive policies in
Romania from the outset of the communist era to the violent
overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in late 1989. Kligman
traces the way in which communist leaders used legislation,
measures to "protect" women in the workplace, propaganda,
and control of the media and other sources of information to
propagate their desired model of women and influence
reproductive choices. She analyzes the role of key profession-
als, such as demographic experts and, particularly, physicians
and other medical personnel, in the making and implement-
ing of reproductive policies. She also considers the role of
international actors, including the United States, in perpet-
uating the Ceausescu regime.