The Challenges of Sustained Development

"This excellent example of critical modernization studies focuses on issues of socio-economic development, paying special attention to so-called cultural factors of development.... [This book] is an inspiring attempt at offering a theoretically and methodologically sound ‘cultural’ approach to developmental, institutional and social change. It integrates a broad exploration of social-theory sources with carefully conducted empirical analyses. Moreover, it outlines a holistic, heuristic model of developmental performance, which is immediately put to the empirical test by the authors in the comparative analyses focused on post-communist countries. It is noteworthy that the authors do not hide theoretical and methodological difficulties inherent in the proposed model – unique in itself – but try to overcome them or, at least, to warn the reader against them. In addition, they leave the model open for further elaboration. Throughout the book they present and discuss an impressive pool of variegated, both quantitative and qualitative, data that may be used for further analyses." * Note de Lecture *