The Decay and Breakdown of Communist One-Party Systems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6232989 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stathis N Kalyva (0000-0003-0876-1368, New York University, corresponding author), Stathis N Kalyvas (New York University) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 323-343 |
| Publication date | 1999-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annual Review of Political Science (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1094-2939 • E-ISSN: 1545-1577 |
| Publisher | Annual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.323 |
| OpenAlex | W2147643979 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 34 |
| References cited | 60 |
The failure to anticipate the collapse of communist one-party systems stands in striking contrast to the determinism of retrospective accounts. This essay reviews accounts of the decay and breakdown of one-party systems in order to uncover the causes behind political science's inability to both anticipate these developments and provide satisfactory explanations. These causes include the deterministic character of most accounts, the absence of a theory of single-party rule, the absence or misspecification of causal links between the major building blocks of the arguments put forth, and the analytic conflation of decay and breakdown. Understanding the decay and breakdown of one-party systems requires a methodologically conscious distinction between these two processes and a specification of their links (and the links between the variables affecting each process), grounded in a theory of single-party rule
Communism · Conflation · Determinism · Economics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance
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| Unique citing works | 34 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,42 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2025 (24) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 34 |