Der Band ist Ergebnis der Third Berlin Conference on Comparative Political Research in Central and Eastern Europe im Dezember 1997 und Teil der mit "Founding Elections in Eastern Europe" überschriebenen Veröffentlichungsreihe. Die einzelnen Beiträge wollen weder detailliert bestimmte Wahlen auswerten noch bestimmte Schulen der Wahlforschung darstellen – hierzu gibt es den Herausgebern zufolge bereits andere Publikationen in dieser Reihe. Vielmehr geht es um Folgendes: "to present an overall review of the state of the art of election studies in each Country, thier main findings and conclusions, and the difficulties and opporrtunities they present" (9). Inhalt: General Considerations: Sarah Birch: Elections and Representation in Post-Communist Eastern Europe (13-35); Geoffrey Evans / Stephen Whitefield: Explaining the Formation of Electoral Cleavages in Post-Communist Democracies (36-67). Country Reports: Central Europe: Gabor Toka: Electoral Research in Hungary (71-104); Radoslaw Markowski: Electoral Research in Poland (105-139); Algis Krupavicius: Electoral Research in Lithuania (140-165); Ivan Grdesic: Electoral Research in Croatia (166-180); Vladimir Goati / Srecko Mihailovic: Electoral Research in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (181-200). The Balkans: Antony Todorov: Electoral Research in Bulgaria (203-214); Pavel Campeanu: Electoral Research in Romania (215-234); Svetomir Skaric: Electoral Research in Macedonia (235-247); Kosta Barjaba: Electoral Research in Albania (248-260). Eastern Europe: Vladimir Gel'man: Electoral Research in Russia (263-290); Olexandr Stegniy: Electoral Research in the Ukraine (291-302); Valerii Karbalevich: Electoral Research in Belarus (303-313). Appendix A: Brigitte Hausstein: Data and Background Information on Elections in Central and Eastern Europe: Sources in the World Wide Web (317-347). Appendix B: Ekkehard Mochmann: Electoral Studies Conducted in Eastern European Countries (351-353).