ABSTRACT
The political transformations that were the catalysts of the new world order of the 1990s, as well as those which resulted from it, were both numerous and dramatic. Whatever the causes of the “great transformation” of the 1980s, classical typologies of states, and ultimately of various political forms, fell apart with the demise of the greater part of the Second World. The easily discernible “three worlds of politics”, with their sharply divided patterns of interaction between their respective states and societies, gave way to a much more complicated set of political relationships. In the new era, the worlds of politics have not just changed but have indeed become revolutionised, making the need for a revision and reformulation of traditional notions of comparative politics inescapable. Neither states nor societies, nor in fact the relationships between them, can any longer be properly conceptualised within the context of analytical norms developed over the past forty years or so. To one extent or another, all have undergone fundamental changes. As recent global events have demonstrated, such conventional labels as “democratic”, “communist”, and “authoritarian”, or even different variations of them, are no longer strictly applicable. A new typology is needed to adequately account for the new patterns of relationships that have evolved during the “New World Order” between states and societies.
