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Post-communist Europe is topic of upcoming talk

March 19, 2009

KALAMAZOO--An expert in central European politics will discuss the past two decades of change in post-communist Europe at a free public talk at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, in the Fetzer Center's Putney Auditorium at Western Michigan University.

Dr. Kevin Deegan-Krause, an associate professor at Wayne State University, will speak on "Objects in the Mirror are Closer than They Appear: The Politics of Post-communist Europe and Why We Should Care." He is the Institute of Government and Politics' 2009 George Klein speaker, sponsored by WMU's Department of Political Science.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in central Europe. While nearly all the countries in Europe have made a transition from communism to democracy and markets, their economic and political models are not quite like those of the west. Deegan-Krause argues developments in these countries during the past two decades echo--or even prefigure--political developments in the west, particularly the United States.

He is author of "Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic" (Stanford University Press, 2006) and journal articles in Party Politics, the Journal of Democracy, East European Politics and Societies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies. His current projects focus on the origins and consequences of political divides in new democracies, and on populism.

For more information, contact Dr. Susan Hoffmann, associate professor of political science, at susan.hoffmann@wmich.edu or (269) 387-5692. Campus maps and parking information can be found online.

Media contact: Deanne Molinari, (269) 387-8400, deanne.molinari@wmich.edu

WMU News
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