Post-Imperial Democracies

This book examines the causal impact of ideology through a comparative-historical analysis of three cases of ‘post-imperial democracy’: the early Third Republic in France (1870–86); the Weimar Republic in Germany (1918–34); and post-Soviet Russia (1992–2008). Hanson argues that political ideologies are typically necessary for the mobilization of enduring, independent national party organizations in uncertain democracies. By presenting an explicit and desirable picture of the political future, successful ideologues induce individuals to embrace a long-run strategy of cooperation with other converts. When enough new converts cooperate in this way, it enables sustained collective action to defend and extend party power. Successful party ideologies thus have the character of self-fulfilling prophecies: by portraying the future polity as one organized to serve the interests of those loyal to specific ideological principles, they help to bring political organizations centered on these principles into being.

Author Biography

Stephen E. Hanson is the Vice Provost for Global Affairs and the Herbert J. Ellison Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. Hanson is the author of Time and Revolution: Marxism and the Design of Soviet Institutions (1997), which received the 1998 Wayne S. Vucinich book award from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. His more recent publications include Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (2001, with Richard Anderson Jr., M. Steven Fish, and Philip Roeder), and articles in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, and East European Politics and Societies. He also served as Assistant General Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series in Comparative Politics until 2008.