About the book: 2022 / After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries of the former socialist camp entered a new historical era. The euphoria of the collapse of totalitarian regimes prompted researchers in the 1990s to describe the future trajectory of these countries in terms of liberal democracy, but it soon became clear that political reality did not live up to everyone's hopes for accelerated democratization of the region. The situation of transit has given rise to regimes that cannot be clearly categorized using traditional liberal discourse. Balint Magyar and Balint Madlovic set themselves the task of finding a working analytical model and a relevant language for describing post-communist regimes. This is how this book appeared, offering updated theoretical tools for analyzing the actors, institutions and dynamics of modern political systems in Central Europe, the post-Soviet region and China. How are the institutions of democratic public debate neutralized in autocracies? Why can China be called a “market-exploiting dictatorship”? What is the difference between Western populists and populists from post-communist countries? Here is just a small list of questions that this book answers. Balint Magyar is a Hungarian sociologist, politician, and former Minister of Education and Culture of Hungary. Balint Madlovic – Hungarian political scientist, economist and sociologist, MA in political science from Central European University.