The Polish Solidarity Movement

..."not simply a study of Solidarity, but rather an ambitious and pathbreaking effort to analyze the ideological origins of modern democracy by examining its articulation and institutionalization in three diverse revolutionary periods... Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects on institutional practice." -"Comparative Politics "No short review can do justice to this ambitious and remarkable book. There is nothing similar to it, theoretically, and the author's detailed familiarity with primary and secondary sources related to revolutionary apologetics is exemplary." -"Perspectives on Political Science "Cirtautas's comparative study marks a genuine advance in the treatment of elite ideology and its effects of institutional practice. In essence, she demonstrates how the precise ideological basis of legitimation underlying democratic institutions can be seen as an independent variable with observable effects on the dependent variables of institutional design with democratic stability. Unlike the transitions to democracy approach, no teleology is implied; natural law is seen as only one type of value rationality among many, whose power to generate democracy depends crucially upon the presence of a supportive social environment.."" -Stephen E. Hanson, "From Culture to Ideology in Comparative PoliticsI