Getting The Gist Of The Passage

It is incumbent on those who advise and assist those building new societies to point to the need for institution building beyond concern with political parties, electoral laws, and market mechanisms. Well functioning and enduring democratic systems depend upon a host of institutional arrangements. Creating these institutions will be a formidable task.

The challenge of building democracy-sustaining institutions is most acute in the countries of Eastern Europe now working their way out of "real socialism," but it is also a central issue for some non-communist nations in Asia that have spent decades under various forms of authoritarian and dictatorial rule....