Kurtz, Marcus J. <br/><br/>
The political foundations of post-communist regimes: marketization, agrarian legacies, or international influences 

 -  2002 
 - p.524-53. 
 - Jun 
<br/><br/> This article explores the causes of differing post-communist  regime transitions thesis that economic liberalization promotes political democratization. We explore this argument in light of findings from other regions that have emphasized modernization, agrarian class structure, and international influences. Our results are based on a multilevel design strategy, first analyzing data on 26 post-communist countries over  a 7-to 9- year period using time-series/cross-sectional methods and then turning to a comparative analysis of four purposively selected cases to explore the casual mechanisms implied but not tested in the quantitative analysis. Our results  suggest that faith in economic liberalization as a cause of democratization may be misplaced. However, there is support for the notion that large agrarian sectors are unfavourable to democratic development, whereas positive democratic conditionally from outside agents can play an important role in transition dynamics. - Reproduced. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Eastern Europe - Politics and government<br/>Politics and government