ABSTRACT
A more procedure-based definition is contained in Ralf Dahrendorf’s view that consolidated democracy occurs when the alternation of political parties in power is both regular and accepted by the contenders. Comparing Poland with other consolidating democracies rather than with established ones provides a different set of measures and expectations about it. Like many of the former Soviet-bloc states, Poland is confronted with a number of obstacles impeding full democratic consolidation. As a socialist state, Poland was also unique in the number of political crises it experienced. Any theory of democratization founded upon the primacy of one factor will appear deterministic, simplistic, and neglectful of the complex realities of late-twentieth-century societies. A leading candidate for a framework for addressing the complex nature of democratization is structural or system functionalism, arguably the most widely applied analytic model in political science since the 1960s. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
