Suchergebnisse

Der Verfasser zeigt, daß der wesentliche Ursachenkomplex für die sich verschärfende politische Krise in Polen nicht in den Auswirkungen der tiefen Rezession der polnischen Wirtschaft zu suchen ist, sondern in der spezifischen Konstellation postkommunistischer Politik und dem Erbe der kommunistischen Herrschaft. Genannt werden vor allem die Zersetzung von sozialen Strukturen und Interessenartikulation, die Zerstörung der Zivilgesellschaft sowie die besonderen Umstände ihrer Rekonstruktion in der Niedergangsperiode des Staatssozialismus und die spezifische, vom alten Regime tradierte Form des politischen Diskurses und der Legitimierung von Autorität. Ergebnis dieser Faktoren sind eine tiefgehende Fragmentierung der politischen Akteure und Fehlbildungen des politischen Spektrums. (BIOst-Wpt)

This article explores various dimensions of the issue of transition to democracy in East Central Europe, focusing on the question of how past experiences shape the process of political change and on the limits of democratization in the region. The first part reviews scholarly debates on the relationship between the political crisis and processes of democratization in the region, arguing that new analytical categories are needed to account for different dimensions of the current transition process. The second part proposes a new framework for analysing changing relations between the party–state and society across time and in different state-socialist societies. The third part examines some recent political developments in countries of the region in order to identify those factors that may contribute to or impede a possibility of the transition to democracy in these countries. It concludes that in all East Central European countries the rapid collapse of party–states and the multidimensional social, political and economic crisis has initiated a parallel process of diminution of power of both the state and civil society, which may significantly endanger the transition to a democratic political order.

Focuses on the question of how past experiences shape the process of political change and on the limits of democratization in the region.

1. Introduction -- 2. Political crises and popular protest under state socialism -- 3. Post-1989 Poland: basic trends in politics, economy, and society -- 4. Three realms of politics and regime change -- 5. Protest politics in postcommunist Poland -- 6. The fall of the Suchocka government: interaction of popular protest and conventional politics -- 7. Cultural frames and discourses of protest -- 8. Conclusions: collective protest and democratic consolidation

Abstract: The reconstitution of civil society in the postcommunist world is misunderstood. Commonly diagnosed as weak and ineffective, really existing civil societies vary widely across the region. They differ from each other along several dimensions: constitution of public space, organizational composition, patterns of behavior, and normative orientations. Such differences result from dissimilar legacies of communism, diverging patterns of transformation, and different regime types. In Central Europe civil societies are generally as developed as in some countries of the West. In Central Asia incipient civic organizations are constrained in a manner resembling the pre-1989 Eastern Europe. In other parts of the former communist world, associational life has intensified despite many obstacles, but civil societies are politically impotent.

In the twenty years since communism's collapse, scholars of postcommmunist Central and Eastern Europe have increasingly converged on the insight that long-run continuities reaching back to the nineteenth century are crucial in shaping some of the most important contemporary macro- and micro-level political outcomes in the region. Today's political cleavages, political discourses, patterns of partisan affiliation, institutional choice, and the quality of democracy itself all appear to correlate to a remarkable degree with patterns from the 'deep past.' To date, social scientists, however, have not sufficiently reflected on what might explain this finding and how to study the impact of the general phenomenon of the long-run in the region. This article makes two contributions. First, we contend that in general, long-run continuities may ironically be more important in contexts of discontinuous institutional change such as in Central and Eastern Europe since frequent institutional disjunctures paradoxically open chasms between formal and informal institutions, preventing gradual change and producing patterns of institutional mimicry to cope with institutional ruptures. This insight may travel to other contexts of weak institutionalization. Second, we reject efforts to identify 'deep causes' of contemporary outcomes without specifying how intervening events and crises intersect with these longer-run patterns. The article resuscitates Fernand Braudel's notion of the longue duree to propose a new cumulative approach to the study of the long-run that complicates accounts that too starkly juxtapose precommunist and communist-era 'legacies' on the present and argues that scholars should study how these periods reinforce each other and jointly determine contemporary outcomes. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright the American Council of Learned Societies.]

In the twenty years since communism's collapse, scholars of postcommmunist Central and Eastern Europe have increasingly converged on the insight that long-run continuities reaching back to the nineteenth century are crucial in shaping some of the most important contemporary macro- and micro-level political outcomes in the region. Today's political cleavages, political discourses, patterns of partisan affiliation, institutional choice, and the quality of democracy itself all appear to correlate to a remarkable degree with patterns from the "deep past." To date, social scientists, however, have not sufficiently reflected on what might explain this finding and how to study the impact of the general phenomenon of the long-run in the region. This article makes two contributions. First, we contend that in general, long-run continuities may ironically be more important in contexts of discontinuous institutional change such as in Central and Eastern Europe since frequent institutional disjunctures paradoxically open chasms between formal and informal institutions, preventing gradual change and producing patterns of institutional mimicry to cope with institutional ruptures. This insight may travel to other contexts of weak institutionalization. Second, we reject efforts to identify "deep causes" of contemporary outcomes without specifying how intervening events and crises intersect with these longer-run patterns. The article resuscitates Fernand Braudel's notion of the longue duree to propose a new cumulative approach to the study of the long-run that complicates accounts that too starkly juxtapose precommunist and communist-era "legacies" on the present and argues that scholars should study how these periods reinforce each other and jointly determine contemporary outcomes.

Introduces this special journal issue on the future eastward expansion of the European Union (EU), noting the "political urgency & intellectual challenge" inherent in this process. More than merely a bureaucratic exercise, the enlargement of the EU involves a complex interplay of state, polity, & political economy building. Threats & opportunities posed by enlargement are discussed, as are specific challenges for Eastern European countries seeking EU membership. Prerequisites for successful enlargement are delineated, & the role of specialist scholars in conducting research on the process is defined. K. Hyatt Stewart