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This chapter examines the evolution of the authoritarian political tradition in Russia from its inception to the present, and its influence on the development of Russian mass media. The authoritarian tradition became most pivotal for daily life in Russia, as it ensured that the media fully ascribed to specific political agendas. The cohesion has consistently affected Russian media coverage and continues to shape it today. The authors investigate how precisely this occurs, focusing on several political events, specifically the current situation in Ukraine. Through studying certain empirical materials concerning the political evolution in Russia, the authors answer the question of whether in the future Russian media will be likely to continue serving as an instrument of political propaganda rather than as a source of non-biased information.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the French Revolution in Russian intellectual life. One could even make the claim that the French Revolution has had a more significant impact on modern Russian history than it has had upon modern French history! Indeed, since the end of the nineteenth century, the French Revolution has become passe in France in the sense that no Frenchman has looked at it as a blueprint for current political development. While there have been cases in which some of the old revolutionary images were invoked to bolster support for certain political activities (such as support for the war against Germany), it has never been wholeheartedly re‐embraced and there has been a sense of detachment about the revolution, a sense that modern conditions were somehow different.

The chapter draws on historical evidence from Central America to test two of the most influential theories of the development of democracy: (1) structural theories derived from the work of Barrington Moore and (2) theories of the “political economy of democratic transitions.” The Central American evidence confirms Moore's theory in regard to the anti-democratic role of landed elites, but not the democratic role of the bourgeoisie. Contrary to some structural theories, the industrial working class was also not important in the development of democracy in Central America. Nor does the Central American evidence fit the political economy of democratic transitions model of negotiated or imposed “transitions from above.” A new model, termed the route to democracy through socialist revolution from below is proposed to account for the Central American evidence and the implications of the model are explored for the development of democracy generally.

This chapter analyzes how institutional pressures have allowed for continuities as well as brought about changes in modern police organizations in Korea. When facing a legitimacy crisis, the Korean law enforcement system has typically responded with organizational restructuring. Strong myth-building patterns compensate for the lack of moral legitimacy of the police, particularly under authoritarian-military regimes that suppress democratization movements in Korea. Even after seemingly radical organizational changes aimed at placing the police under democratic control, highly institutionalized core structures of the police remain in place. Performance reform after the economic crisis, which was proceeded from reformers’ shared belief in the market-driven solutions, diagnosed the Korean police as a big, inefficient, and self-serving bureaucracy, a diagnosis that eventually caused gradual deterioration in the taken-for-grantedness of policing activities. The internet and social media made the Korean police even more vulnerable to external challenges and a questioning of its legitimacy.

Reports preliminary results from an ethnographic study of a consultative process in an Australian university during 1997. By providing a “virtual discussion forum” an organisational support system (OSS), based on e‐mail and Intranet, was expected to enable equal participation in the consultative process, freedom of expression (“everybody will have their say and will be heard”) and to contribute to more participative and consensus‐based decision making. The analysis of data collected (messages, documents, interviews, notes) suggests that the OSS was not used uniformly across the institution by departments, groups and individuals. Different modes of use of the OSS identified related to contextual features, such as democratic versus authoritarian management traditions, the sharing of power versus authority of power, the culture of consultation versus obedience to superiors. It was found that these contextual features conditioned the modes of use and consequently the role OSS played in the process. On the other hand, it was observed how, in the course of the process, the OSS affected these contextual factors themselves.

Democracy and Islam are both capable of multiple interpretations and applications. Islam possesses ideological resources that provide justification for a wide spectrum of political models. However, the compatibility of Islam and democracy relies on the critical questions of: “whose Islam” and “what Islam,” and “whose democracy” and “what democracy.” The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities and challenges of the recent democratic transitions in the Muslim world.

The paper is a discursive essay.

Islamic history has demonstrated that there is no monolithic construal of Islam and politics, and in fact history actually provides hope that a more representative and democratic government might result from the uprisings, with healthier, progressive elements of Islam emerging in ways that were not before possible.

While other observers have explored the compatibility question of Islam and democracy, very little has been written on the recent political upheavals situating the question within this context.

The quality approach has now become a familiar trend which is injecting a fresh impetus into the world economy. It would be unfathomable for this world-wide move towards quality to be ignored in modern public administration. The move from the tradition of an authoritarian administration, towards a service oriented administration is the principal element of administrative modernization today. The objective of creating such a responsive administration, which is attuned to the citizen's perspective, is the major characteristic of the reform movement of the new public administration as it approaches the 21st century. Service quality initiatives relate to enhancing the public sector by making it more responsive. Service quality initiatives change the public's perception of public services, the way public servants interact with the public, the way the public service is organized and delivered, and the types of services provided.

In this section I consider different models of nationhood, the diffusion of new multicultural models, and barriers to the spread of new models rooted in nations' pasts and the current fears of immigrants from the Middle East.