Description
Book SynopsisChallenging dominant assumptions in international relations, Altered States demonstrates that national political institutions change more frequentlyand less dramaticallythan is commonly thought and with important consequences for the political landscape. Combining theory with solid empirical researchincluding archival evidence and interviewsthe contributors explore the causes and consequences of institutional transformation in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Republics, and Cuba. Altered States highlights the dynamic and interactive relationship between national political institutions and reform-minded policy entrepreneurs, a perspective that will interest scholars and policy makers alike.
Trade ReviewAltered States is an important study of the sources of institutional change. It rightly focuses on advancing our understanding of incremental change and intentional design. The rich variety of empirical examples highlight the important consequences of institutional reforms. -- Elizabeth Kier, University of Washington
[This book] will open many avenues for conducting new research into a field of international relations and comparative politics, and will further sharpen our understanding of the politics of this world in which institutions clearly "matter." * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
Over the years scholars of international and comparative politics have made great progress in understanding the impact of state structures and institutions on foreign and domestic policy. They often associated dramatic changes in policy with prior institutional changes, yet left open the key question of when and why instituttions themselves change. In this pathbreaking volume, Andrew Cortell and Susan Peterson have assembled a collection of high-quality essays addressing this question in a wide range of issue-areas and with a geographical scope that encompasses the European Union, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Cuba, the United States, Britain, and Japan. The chapters are theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich, and the volume as a whole constitutes an important advance in our understanding of institutional change. -- Matthew Evangelista, Cornell University, editor of Italy from Crisis to Crisis: Political Economy, Security, and Society in the 21st Century
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Agents, Structures, and Domestic Institutional Change Chapter 2 European Judicial Review and National Institutional Change Chapter 3 Explaining the Lack of Institutional Change in Cuba Chapter 4 Altering the U.S. State: Post-Vietnam Changes in Foreign Policy Authority Chapter 5 Institutional Change and Post-Communist States: The Transformation of Civilian Control in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia Chapter 6 Institutional Dynamics in Collapsing Empires: Domestic Structural Change in the USSR, Post-Soviet Russia, and Independent Ukraine Chapter 7 Institutionalizing the Regulation of Inward Foreign Direct Investment Chapter 8 Breaking the Policy Bias: Windows of Opportunity and the Realignment of Structural Constraints in Three Government Departments Chapter 9 The Causes and Consequences of Institutional Change
