Bunce argued that both communist and democratic countries exhibited a similar cycle of policy innovation, in which rapid policy innovations occur whenever a new leader assumes power, followed by a period of incremental or no change until the next leadership transition.
[3][4] Thomas Baylis noted that an important corollary of this theory is that secession crises in Communist regimes therefore must serve a functionalist purpose, which he viewed as a counterintuitive but fundamental claim.
[6] In a review written in 2000, Michael Bernhard called Subversive Institutions one of the two "most important books on developments in Europe east of the Elbe since 1989",[7] while Robert Legvold wrote that it "tackles the transcendent questions of an age" with impressive brevity.
[6] In addition to highly cited[8] journal articles in venues like Comparative Political Studies[9] and World Politics,[10] Bunce was also a coauthor of the book Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Postcommunist Countries (2011) and a co-editor of Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (2009).
[1] Bunce's work has also been referenced in major media outlets like The New York Times,[11] The Washington Post,[12] Foreign Affairs,[13] and The New Republic.