Description
Book SynopsisEurope has entered the 21st century in a state of growing uncertainty about the role and scope of traditional political rights. The scope of ''political rights'' is a subject which has always provoked a degree of scholarly controversy, as indeed is reflected in the essays of this volume. Nonetheless, it has usually been taken as evident that the best cure for various threats to and defects of liberal democracy is more stringent rather than less stringent protection of rights such as freedom of speech, or freedom of political and other forms of association. But the global environment in which Europe finds itself has changed, and has gradually eroded these conventional wisdoms. The increased threat of terrorism on the one hand, epitomised by the events of September 11 2001, and the accession of the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their specific political traditions on the other hand, has placed this liberal-democratic consensus under considerable stress.The es
Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. A Pluralist Theory of Political Rights in the Times of Stress ; 3. Freedom of Expression in Political Contexts: Some Reflections on the Case Law of the European Court of Justice ; 4. Freedom of Political Association and the Question of Party Closures ; 5. The Role of Political Rights in Democratization of Central and Eastern Europe ; 6. The Political Rights of National Minorities: Lessons from Central and Eastern Europe
