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Transition from a planned command economy to a market economy means tearing down a socio-economic setting where everybody follows orders and nobody bears individual responsibility for anything. The absence of personal responsibility does not promote ethical behavior in any walk of life. Today, the malnourished business ethics in the former Soviet Union creates a critical obstacle to economic development. The paucity of new official rules governing the conduct of business makes the transition process painful and difficult to people habituated to numberless rules and regulations. The first part of this paper surveys the most visible unethical business practices that have been reported by the Western media and those that are causing the largest number of complaints by the local governments and businessmen. The second part of the paper looks at ethical problems that have been under-reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of the concept of rationality in (especially classical) sociological theory. This exploration is prompted by widely held views, especially among economists and rational choice theorists, that classical sociology is the science of the irrational lacking a conception of rationality. By using pertinent examples (mostly) from classical and post-classical (or early contemporary) sociological theory, the paper casts serious doubt on such claims. Specifically, classical sociological theory is characterized by the following features in analyzing rationality: conceptual and methodological pluralism, theoretical and empirical richness, treating rationality as a complex social phenomenon, differentiating economic and noneconomic rationality, acknowledging the social character and foundation of (economic) rationality, and contrasting epistemological or scientific rationality and ontological or real-life irrationality, including the revelation of the irrationality of extreme (economic) rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the manner in which the east of Europe has been theorized in the post cold war environment, and the implications for our understanding of the relationship between east and west. It argues that hegemonic discourses of neoliberalism lend a quality of inevitability to the integration of east into west, which in turn leads to a singular conception of Europe at the end of a trajectory of development. The paper argues that the relationship of western Europe to eastern Europe is more fruitfully explored through the conceptual framework of a center to its margins, which allows for a broader range of analysis on the issues – conceptual and implementational – at stake in transition processes, and which will allow for a theoretical exploration of where power is located and exercised. Because eastern Europe is understood in scholarly and policy communities as politically and geographically European, the study of postcommunist transition in Europe falls outside the purview of a development studies community that is increasingly focused on the emerging north/south divide. In a scholarly environment where the East/West divide no longer constitutes a salient focus of study, there is a need for the development of a framework that will provide a richer understanding of the reconstituted relationships being formed in Europe in the post-cold war environment. This paper argues that the social, economic, and political impact of disciplinary neoliberalism in eastern Europe can benefit from an analysis that takes into consideration the Eurocentric, disciplinary power that lies at the core of the transition process. Toward this end, it is necessary to query the discursive foundations of what constitutes the `properly European' in order to develop a framework for a more fruitful course of analysis with respect to the relationship between Europe and its fluctuating eastern margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of identity is a controversial and ardent topic in contemporary constitutional theory. As this paper is intended to show, East-European minority politics may provide an interesting angle to the study of this sensitive and complicated issue. The dilemma is the following: It is the Murphy-law of prejudice that when it comes to the maltreatment of members of various ethnic groups no serious definitional or recognition-difficulties arise. It is because when it comes to discrimination or ethnic hostility, it is always the daily practice of the majority that will define membership in the discrete and insular minority group. Defining qualification requirements therefore to minority groups seems to pose difficulties only in the context of minority-identity based preferences. This anomaly is however more then of theoretical jurisprudential interest, as in some cases the entire effectiveness of the aimed minority protection schemes may depend thereon. It is fearful that having a post-communist mentality towards state policies with an ethnicized system of preferences, due to the lack of political cultural and public moral restraints, these preferences will simply be seen as services provided by the (alienated, thus for no sympathy or co-operation eligible) state. What seems to be in the centerfold of East European minority politics is thus ``ethnocorruption '', that is the utilizing and misusing of remedial measures for private and from the legislator's intentions independent means. In this paper, following a constitutional semantical analysis of the minority identity, the demons of ethnocorrpution will be demonstrated through a comparative assessment of a case study of a Hungarian legislation and its possible progeny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies of the Socialist/Communist city have paid only limited attention to the ways in which Communist regimes mobilised a wide variety of symbols in the urban landscape in order to legitimate and institutionalise the ideology of revolutionary socialism. This paper considers the role of street names in this process with particular reference to Bucharest, Romania during the 1948–1965 period. When the Communist regime came to power it embarked on widespread renaming of streets as one means of both `decommemorating' the pre-socialist regime and proclaiming the agenda and ideology of the Communist state. The new street names commemorated a variety of events and personalities from the history of Romanian and Soviet Communism. The impact of street names was amplified further through practices such as multiple namings and the spatial clustering of street names of high ideological resonances. The paper argues that Bucharest's street names can be `read' as a mirror of ideological change, changing constructions of national identity, and Romania's macro-political orientation (especially its changing relations with the Soviet Union). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains a philosophical explication of some of the essentials of a Marxist approach to business ethics. A Marxist approach is construed as a moral critique of capitalism. This paper hopes to lay the groundwork for a more detailed analysis of Karl Marx's critique of capitalist economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this paper is that even some of the most fundamental concepts of Marxism have been used and abused to fit their advocates‘ purposes. More specifically, the interpretation of the concept of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" has been subject to a dual development. First, the dictatorship of the proletariat has come to denote an increasingly violent regime. Second, the term has been used to refer to a rule exercised by an ever smaller segment of society. This paper seeks to analyze and elucidate this much disputed and frequently misunderstood Marxist concept. In the first part Marx‘s use of the term is examined. The second section explores how the same concept was explicated in the writings of some of the most important first generation Marxist thinkers and "practitioners" like Engels, Lenin, Kautsky, Bukharin, and Stalin. Following the summary of my findings I attempt to formulate some meaningful generalizations about the usage of the concept by Marxist thinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the revolutionary origins of Soviet communism this paper argues that symbolic structures were crucial in the making of Soviet communism as a political force. It conceptualizes symbolizations as contingent interpretive acts that capture people in extraordinary situations of dissolutions of political order. In the first part, I identify the dramatic and imaginative sources of the Bolshevik Revolution, which created a schismogenetic system, in which symbolic structures of time, representation, and leadership would become disintegrative forces in Soviet society. In the second part, I elaborate on the creativity of political symbolism by understanding symbolizations as rites of passage, constructions of origins and ends, as well as reality-creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Rather than to know the origins of symbols, the proposition here is to understand how symbolic meanings contributed to the creation not only of the empirical-objective world of Soviet communism but also of dominant social science interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as the availability of new ideas can drive the development of new institutions, the unavailability of ideas also has powerful political effects. The article demonstrates the paradoxical absence of class discourse in postcommunist Polish political debates—paradoxical because the same actors who eschewed class discourse believed that postcommunist class formation and inequalities were the central problems shaping the country and driving the political agenda. The paper documents the early thinking about class and politics on the part of key political activists. It traces their fear of class discourse to their limited knowledge of postwar European capitalisms and the role played by strong labor movements in stabilizing those systems. Ironically, Poles understood capitalism in too Marxist a way, as a perennially raging struggle between classes. Knowing that workers would lose out in the new system, they feared that speaking about class would empower workers as a class and thus weaken the market economy they were determined to build. Not generally aware how class compromise in the post-World War II era worked to stabilize capitalism, Polish (and most other eastern European) oppositionists did their best to thwart the emergence of class identities on the part of those left behind, even at the cost, for liberals, of reconciling themselves to political defeat. The result of the refusal to countenance class discourse was not a block on the emergence of class anger, but a displacement of that anger from class “others” to identity-based others, and thus a weakening of the liberal politics that most postcommunist liberals had wished to reinforce. A final section explores recent Polish thinking about class in the context of reactions to the Polish edition of my Defeat of Solidarity book showing continued mainstream reluctance to talk about class but new interest in this category among youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the position of the industrial working class in Romania before 1989, its role in the overthrow of the communist regime during the December 1989 revolution, and its status during the postcommunist transition to democracy after 1989. The subordination of labor interests by both communist and postcommunist regimes to ideologies that underestimated the issue of class differentiation is emphasized throughout the paper. This analysis is undertaken at two levels, namely, the rewriting of the history of communism after 1989 and the obstacles encountered during the process of democratic transition. The later aspect refers to the problematic relationship between the intellectuals and the working class and labor's lack of involvement in shaping the post-1989 economic and political reforms. The argument that I pursue is that many of the setbacks experienced during the democratization process are partly rooted in the status of labor as an important absentee from the discourse and agenda of both incumbent governments and intellectual elites. It has been a significant factor in pushing the working class towards an illiberal right-wing politics and ideologies of a populist, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the fact—despite a widespread impression to the contrary—that the collapse of Communism in the fall of 1989 did not happen overnight, the paper explores the kind of gradual societal work that had led to the emergence of democratic polities in Central Europe but that had generally escaped the notice not only of policy makers and the leaders of the “free world” but also of theorists. The concept and practices of performative democracy as it manifested itself in the period of late Communism (1970s–1989), but also in South Africa at the dusk of apartheid, and the conditions for political performativity, as well as its main features, are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first traces the major changes in the relationship between the (Orthodox) Church and State in the different Russian polities, using Madeley's framework of historic mono-confessional blocs and multi-confessional belts. Second, it outlines the recent tendencies and characteristic features of church-state relations in today's Russia. Third, using data from sociological surveys, it analyses the current dominant popular perceptions and societal attitudes towards religion and the State, including religious freedom. Being part of the historic monoconfessional Orthodox bloc, the different Russian polities produced different models of church-state relations: from a symphony of religious and political powers, through a forced nationalization of the Orthodox Church (Russian Empire from the époque of Peter the Great until revolution of 1917), and forced secularisation (during the Soviet Union), to a return of mutual support of (Orthodox) Church and State despite a formal (constitutional) separation in Putin's Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the problem of communist power in so called totalitarian regimes. Inspired by strategies of explanation in contemporary science studies and by the ethnomethodological conception of social order, we suggest that the power of communists is not to be taken as an unproblematic source of explanation; rather, we take this power as something that is itself in need of being explained. We study personal narratives on political screenings that took place in Czechoslovakia in 1970 and analyze how the power of communists obtained its strength from ordinary and “unremarkable” interactions between participants. The screenings are interpreted, in the terms of Bruno Latour, as “trials of strength.” We show that it was crucial for all the participants that associations, translations or mobilizations involved in making the regime real, remained partial and multiple, and not exclusive and “total” as is often assumed within dominant discourses on totalitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The far-reaching historical transformations of recent decades, including the decline of the Keynesian/Fordist organization of polity and economy in the West, the collapse of party-state command economies in the East, and the emergence of a neo-liberal capitalist global order, suggest that contemporary critical theory must be centrally concerned with historical dynamics and large-scale structural changes. The paper argues that these broad developments can best be apprehended by a theory premised on the Marxian theory of capital, but only if that category is fundamentally reconceptualized in ways that distinguish it from its usage in traditional Marxist interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In central Europe fertility fell during transition from centrally planned to market oriented economies. Families reevaluated fertility plans facing new wages, reduced child-care subsidies, and economic uncertainty. Using micro-data from 1984 and 1993 in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this paper relates fertility changes following Communism to wages, prices and risks. Earnings have little impact on fertility timing during transition, though age, job uncertainty, and children conceived during Communism do. In the Czech Republic, changed fertility demand parameters account for much of the fall in fertility. In Slovakia a sizable proportion results from predictable responses to changed incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the agenda of the 2003 International Conference on European Identity and Nationalism in New Jersey. Concerns over the rise of the right-wing nationalist populism in the western Europe; Factors causing the collapse of the communism; Reduction of political complexities.

This paper examines the implicit foundations of several theoretical propositions characteristic of the Marxist tradition in sociology. It argues that these propositions derive from self-contradictory critical premises which are paradoxes of Action Theory. Implicit in these premises is an ideal picture of social reality quite different from the one analytically described by Parsons. I suggest that Action Theory can provide conceptual tools needed to address some specific issues characteristic of the Marxist perspective and, moreover, offers a solution to some epistemological problems raised by the authors who endorse the postmodern position in social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, the skepticism against the stance of value neutrality and the reception of the Frankfurt School in the wake of renewed attention to Marxism in a Critical Sociology has once again focused attention on the problem of the integration of theory and praxis in sociology. Bearing in mind social philosopher Karl Marx's famous statement, philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways, but the point is to change it, members of the Frankfurt School recognized the problem and perhaps difficulty, of praxis in sociology from the very beginning. This paper is primarily an attempt to present a critique of current approaches to field work and especially of participant observation. This particular focus is important for two reasons. First, ethnographic work has become of paramount importance given the sophisticated manipulation of people's lives today. The intricate organization of the work place, the divisive and paralyzing structure especially of the urban setting. The second reason for such an extended critique is that it would guide people to politically and methodologically adequate approaches to field work.

This paper consists of an introduction to the life and work of Iring Fetscher by the interviewer, followed by a conversation with Fetscher, and notes. In the interview, Fetscher discusses his relationship to Marxism, Hegelianism, Lukács, and the Frankfurt School, as well as his critique of Althusser. The contribution of Fetscher, an extremely well-known German specialist on Soviet and Marxist thought, is here discussed in greater detail than anywhere else to date in the English-language scholarly literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalist wars in post-Communist Yugoslavia republics are more than they seem to be at first glance. Rather than analyzing nationalism as a wholly autonomous force in the conflicts, it must be considered within the context of the decades-long battle of communists to achieve state power before and during World War II, and then to hold onto power thereafter. Communists strategically used nationalism to achieve their goals and to battle against the power of their "traditional nationalist" opponents. In this paper author will briefly consider the tension and alliance between Marxist and nationalist claims historically in Europe before turning to the 20th century case posed by Yugoslavia and its post-Communist republics. Two basic types of societal conflicts can be identified in modern European history: social conflicts between the haves and the have nots, and national conflicts between different national and/or ethnic groups. The ideological reflections of these two types are socialism or communism reflecting the vertical division of society and advocating the case of the poor against those who are higher in the social hierarchy, and nationalism, based on some feeling of common belongingness. This feeling of national belongingness is usually connected with the historical claims on territory and a common political history of battles against some "others" who are conquerors and suppressors of one's own nation.

There is a growing schism in the ranks of critical theory. The division has become serious enough that everyone now find it necessary to distinguish between the "classical critical theory" of the Frankfurt School and those revisions of critical thought, which presently abound in the social sciences. This revisionism is characterized by its rejection of the classical paradigm's commitment to the premises of Western Marxism. It replaces the materialism and dialectical method of classical critical theory with a variety of theoretical alternatives such as language theory, an upgraded form of hermeneutic interpretation, or a recrudescent neofunctionalism. The paper discusses this revisionist trend as it has developed in the works of Jurgen Habermas. It begins by first tracing Habermas' theoretical odyssey from its origins in Western Marxism, to its current terminus in a neo-functionalist systems theory. Once having charted this trek, the author will then critically evaluate the adequacy of the political economy that grounds Habermas' mature sociological theory.

This paper has four related themes. It demonstrates that Marx's Communism in its first or Socialist phase would recognize the essential inequality of labour on grounds of efficiency and growth. It offers an explanation for the apparent paradox that Marx and Engels championed a fully-fledged control system notwithstanding appreciation of the allocation functions of a competitive market system. It highlights common ground relating to market process between Marx and Engels and the modern "classical liberals" Mises and Hayek. And it traces the evolutionary nature of the Marx-Engels perspective on transitions between and within economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an American philosopher participating in a cultural exchange program with the Soviet Union in 1964–65, a year spent in the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University, studying and doing research in the history of Russian philosophy, provided many interesting insights – some of them surprising – into the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism and the nature of philosophical education in Russia in the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marxism has an uncanny knack of reappearing when and where it is least expected. It has a boomerang-like character. Marxism's continuing appeal lies in its compelling account of capitalism, outlining possible challenges to capitalism and envisioning alternatives to capitalism. The magic of Marxism lies in somehow holding together these three contradictory elements, its objectivity, diagnosing capitalism as a totality riddled with contradictions, limits and insurgent social forces, its engagement, challenging capitalism on its own terrain and its imagination, daring to postulate a freer world beyond capitalism. The revival of Marxism depends on the reconfiguration of these three moments but without abandoning any one of them. The paper discusses possible fates of Marxism in general with a specific engagement with the emblematic "Communist Manifesto." It offers three readings of the text. The first is a literal reading in which it considers three theses as applied to nineteenth-century capitalism. The second reading draws on shadows lurking within "The Communist Manifesto" to address the twentieth century tripartite division into organized capitalism, its nemesis in state socialism and anti-colonial and postcolonial transformations of the peripheries. The third reading restores "The Communist Manifesto" for comprehending, challenging and envisioning alternatives to the transnational capitalism of today.

This paper focuses its attention upon the relationship between the dominant ideas in American sociology and the receptivity, opposition, or indifference to the ideas of Karl Marx. It documents that early American sociology basically ignored Marx's ideas. When his ideas were addressed, the modal response was overwhelmingly negative, and typically along ideological lines. A classificatory scheme is developed to identify the ideological nature of the treatment of Karl Marx in early American sociology. In effect, Marx was defined as beyond the limits of valid inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand Marx's unique approach to the empirical study of socioeconomic phenomena, it is necessary to delineate the roles played by both philosophic speculation and scientific inquiry in his work. In this paper, Marxism as both "philosophy" and "science" will be considered in some detail, in order to illuminate the strengths and shortcomings of each approach for the understanding of social change The notion of praxis will be introduced as a way of bridging the two concerns I shall argue that the various equations that comprise Marx's economic framework do not permit predictions concerning inevitable outcomes of capitalist economic production This is because Marx's economic categories are at the same time reflections of social and political relationships, the values assigned to the former result in part from the latter, while themselves determining the limits within which the latter operate To understand Marx as a scientist reducing capitalism to formal economic equations is to misread him as an economic determinist, to regard him as a philosopher focusing on reification and false consciousness is to ignore his central concern with necessary economic processes Thus, I shall argue that Marx's work---as exemplified in Capital---constitutes a methodology capable of combining science's concern with lawful necessity, and philosophy's insistence on the possibilities for human freedom from external constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper presents a few of the issues which divide contemporary Marxists and shows how their debates relate to Marx's original work In the first part, I discuss the family, law and the world system in the light of two notions of social structure. In the second part, I consider the dynamics of capitalism and the struggles between classes, races and genders as potential motors of change. This is followed by an outline of Marx's understanding of the persistence of capitalism, the notion of reproduction of social relations, and how the state becomes involved in the organization of struggles and in the preservation of the conditions of accumulation In the final part, the past is examined for the light it may shed on the future Has history a prior purpose, or telos? How did Marx and how do Marxists conceive of the transition from one period of history to another? What can we say about the transition to socialism based on the experience of the last hundred years? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To most Americans World War II was, in the words of columnist Studs Terkel, the good war, fundamentally a positive experience in American life in which a united people triumphed magnificently over the forces of oppression and barbarism. Indeed, even after the United States entered the war, some people always maintained that intervention was at best a tragic mistake, at worst a criminal blunder. And in the light of the vast expansion of Soviet power in the immediate wake of the conflict, and the later victories of communism in China and Cuba, this minority continued to argue that the United States should have stayed out of the war. In September 1939, war broke out in Europe. Anti-interventionists on all sides of the political spectrum shared one major fear that the war would result in the geographical expansion of the Soviet Union and with it the ideology of communism.

Presents a theory of spontaneous privatization based on rational expected utility maximizing behavior by incumbent communists. Link between communist attitudes to reform and the probability of an end to communism; Nature of the precommitment on privatization imposed on the transition democratic government; Presence of popular apathy for communists.

Copyright of Asian Journal of German & European Studies is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article deals with the historical trajectory of anti-communism in South Korea since 1945. Anti-communism has been working as a powerful ideological and institutional constraint to suppress political opposition to authoritarian regimes and to hinder development of critical thoughts in South Korea. However, the demise of East European socialist countries and globalization has transformed the nature of anti-communism, by equating non-market ideologies with communism. Even though there have been political and economic change in the 21 century, anti-communism has still played an important role in constraining policy development as well as political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal assessments of the quality of governance allow authoritarian regimes to identify and address public discontent before it threatens regime stability. This article provides a theory of how the information necessary to produce such assessments is collected, processed, and utilized to guide policy. The empirical focus of the article is on China, which is used to illustrate how information-gathering channels in communist autocracies differ from those used in electoral autocracies. The theoretical argument of the article is that petitions rather than elections function as the main channel for gathering information on popular perceptions about governance problems in communist autocracies. Information compiled through the analysis of petitions is valued because it allows the leadership to identify problems with policy implementation; to track corruption; and to monitor the level of popular trust in the regime. Although protests provide similar information, they can threaten stability. Therefore, the advantage of petitions from the perspective of the regime is that they allow for routine information transfer without compromising stability maintenance. This study is based primarily on previously unavailable archival sources and on a systematic analysis of internal-circulation ( neibu) materials, which provide insight into internal government understandings of governance problems in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to papers on socialism that are published in the September 1997 issue of "International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society."

In his book Why Not Socialism?, G.A. Cohen described several kinds of inequality that would be acceptable under socialism, yet nonetheless harmful to community. I describe another kind of inequality with this property, deriving from the legitimate transmission of preferences and values from parents to children. In the same book, Cohen proposes that the designing of a socialist allocation mechanism is a key problem for socialist theory. I maintain this is less of a problem than he believes. Finally, some thoughts on the 'law of motion of socialist ethos' are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the emergence of gated communities in the post-communist urban context and discusses the reasons for their increasing numbers and popularity. Narrowing in on a Polish city, the description focuses on the forms that gated communities take and on who the residents are, as well as their motives for moving into gated housing. Other explanations for the emergence of gated communities are reviewed. Interviews with residents of gated communities, a questionnaire, and previous studies on the topic form the basis of the material used in the study. It is argued that the motives for moving to gated communities are tightly intertwined with the communist past. While Polish gated communities are obviously an effect of the spatial planning and the housing market at the national and local level, they are also emerging in reaction to the housing conditions prevailing under communism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I argue that the concern with gender relations and the challenges female activists were facing foreclosed any discussion of the transformation activism signalled for male comrades, and thus for wider society. I am particularly interested in men’s own views of their social roles and personal predicaments as the more subtle processes of transformation in the lives of male activists are often overlooked. The article takes a closer look at relationships between men, whether friendships or kin relations, as important roles and everyday practices former activists were/are involved in—during their phase of active participation, but crucially also before they become militants and in the aftermath of their involvement in the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this two-part conversation between two former dissidents and key political thinkers of the 1970s–80s democratic opposition in the region, conducted nearly 20 years after the end of communism, Michnik prompts Havel to revisit the momentous events of the Prague Spring of 1968, the politics of the Kremlin vis-à-vis the region, and the emergence of the human-rights-based initiative known as Charter 77. The situation in Russia under Putin, and the surfacing of a cohesive new authoritarianism called by Michnik Putinism, are discussed, along with the challenges of a young democracy infected by cynicism, compliance, and an addiction to the narrative that emerges from the files produced by the secret police. The second part of the conversation centers around Havel’s recent dramaturgical work that deals with questions of the loss of power and sudden political change. This two-part conversation was conducted on November 16, and November 17, 2008 at the Warsaw offices of Gazeta Wyborcza, before a large audience. The entire text was published in Gazeta Wyborcza on November 18, 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As in most parts of Central and Eastern Europe, there is a tradition in Hungary of changing street names and memorials in the wake of major political transitions. This article focuses on the change of street names and memorials, i.e. the city-text, in Hungary’s political capital, Budapest, between 1985 and 2001. The city-text in Budapest became a locus of dispute between different political authorities, including the nation state, the metropolitan municipality, and the district, each bearing different political ideals during and after the fall of communism. Discursive changes in the post-communist city-text emerged expressing specific conceptions of national sovereignty, but the direction of the changes were debated. Different levels of administration in Budapest and Hungary had divergent visions of what the new discourse on national sovereignty should be. The changes, therefore, did not express a simple transition to an agreed-upon post-communist value system, but were the result of a symbolic struggle between different levels of administration over what should be commemorated in the city-text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall of the Soviet Union is analysed in conceptual terms, drawing on Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte. The author seeks to interpret the instrumental role of the concepts perestrojka, glasnost´, reform, revolution, socialist pluralism, and acceleration in the Soviet collapse. The semantics and pragmatics are related to a wider intellectual and political context, and the conceptual perspective is used to help explain the progress of events. The author argues that the common notion of the reform policy concepts as clichés is not valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-contextualizes Sigmund Freud's interest in the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics in terms of the socio-political connotations of Lamarckism and Darwinism in the 1930s and 1950s. Many scholars have speculated as to why Freud continued to insist on a supposedly outmoded theory of evolution in the 1930s even as he was aware that it was no longer tenable. While Freud's initial interest in the inheritance of phylogenetic memory was not necessarily politically motivated, his refusal to abandon this theory in the 1930s must be understood in terms of wider debates, especially regarding the position of the Jewish people in Germany and Austria. Freud became uneasy about the inheritance of memory not because it was scientifically disproven, but because it had become politically charged and suspiciously regarded by the Nazis as Bolshevik and Jewish. Where Freud seemed to use the idea of inherited memory as a way of universalizing his theory beyond the individual cultural milieu of his mostly Jewish patients, such a notion of universal science itself became politically charged and identified as particularly Jewish. The vexed and speculative interpretations of Freud's Lamarckism are situated as part of a larger post-War cultural reaction against Communism on the one hand (particularly in the 1950s when Lamarckism was associated with the failures of Lysenko), and on the other hand, against any scientific concepts of race in the wake of World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a theory to capture ethnic dynamics in post-Soviet Estonia and Latvia. It also explores a research question of great interest to political scientists, historians, sociologists, and economists: what accounts for stability in deeply divided societies? Drawing on Ian Lustick’s formulation of control, the author suggests that stability in deeply divided societies is a result of conscious efforts made by elites to construct what she calls “systems of partial control.” In such systems, the majority ethnic group controls the political sector, but shares control of the economic sector with minority ethnic groups. Economic prosperity derived from dispersed economic control accounts for stability in Estonia and Latvia. The article identifies two conditions that must be satisfied for elites to tolerate partial control. First, elites must reach a threshold of political hegemony at which point they dominate the political sector and second, the respective state must have a flourishing private sector. The article concludes with an assessment of whether or not systems of partial control are likely to be stable, and a reflection on implications of these systems beyond the post-Soviet region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that in non-Communist developed and developing countries earlier development of agriculture, a dense population, and a state-level polity is associated with a higher income and more rapid economic growth in the late twentieth century. We investigate whether this was also the case for countries under communism and for the same countries in transition to a market economy. Our findings are generally affirmative, with an interesting pattern for the Eurasian socialist core countries involving higher growth nearer their West European and East Asian poles. We also find that ethnic fractionalization, which is correlated with late premodern development, shows harmful effects in the transition era but not under communism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 34 years, the Fondation pour une entraide intellectuelle européenne was involved in promoting cultural dialogue across the Iron Curtain. This article looks at its relations with the Congress for Cultural Freedom, its agenda, and its impact on intellectual debates. It also analyses the ideological evolution of this organization after the 1960s and its transformation as it merged into the Open Society Foundation created by philanthropist George Soros. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of mass contentious politics in Southeast Asia has accumulated significant knowledge over the last 40 years. This politics is instructive because it presents distinctive problems for analysis whose solutions will be useful to future analysts there and elsewhere. Two areas of knowledge where this literature has made special contributions are peasant resistance and the politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency. In addition, the peculiarities of the scholarship on this topic offer an opportunity to engage two different debates. First, because of the diverse methods employed to tackle this topic, the literature is useful for evaluating claims often made by partisans to methodological debates that only one’s own method can accumulate knowledge while others cannot. Second, given the high geopolitical stake Southeast Asia once held for the United States in its fight against world communism, the scholarship on contentious mass politics in this region provides an appropriate test case for the common argument that postwar American scholarship has been dominated by American “imperial designs.” This article examines the different genres of analysis in the literature and shows how these genres hold different normative and ontological assumptions, conceptualize problems differently, and accumulate knowledge in different modes. A key finding of the essay is that knowledge accumulation by different genres has experienced cycles of growth and exhaustion. The evolution of these genres indicates the often neglected fact that knowledge accumulation consumes exhaustible knowledge resources that need to be replenished. The changing fortunes of the genres with different normative orientations also suggest a loose link between scholarship on this topic and broad ideological shifts in the United States, although “imperial interests” did not always prevail as often claimed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although collectivist ideas have everywhere fallen into disrepute, this essay argues that socialism nevertheless will survive and be extended in the new century. That gloomy prospect looms, not because socialism is more efficient or more just, but because ceding control over their actions to others allows individuals to escape, evade and even deny personal responsibilities. People are afraid to be free; the state stands in loco parentis. The breaching of plausibly acceptable fiscal limits in the first half of the new century will determine how the basic conflict between welfare dependency and liberal principles will be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]