Suchergebnisse

After World War II, governments carried out agrarian reforms in Eastern Europe. This measure resulted in a radical change in the distribution of land ownership. Later a policy of collectivization and formation of state farms followed. Agricultural production has stagnated and fallen behind the planned mark and needs of the population. Conditions concerning production, marketing, and income reduce incentive for greater production and for the mar keting of larger amounts of production. Agriculture has played a subservient role to the rapid development of industry, and generally represents the least successful sector of Communist economic policy.

Because of their composition, the World War II emigrations from Eastern Europe have had two main purposes: the preservation of national cul tures subject to intensified Russification and destruction, and the liberation of their compatriots from an alien and unpopular rule. The recent détente in the international situation and signs of liberalization in the satellites have called for a reassessment of the émigré policies and have caused disagreement on the role of the political and cultural mission of the exiles.

At a time of tremendous flux throughout Europe, this book provides solid analyses of the events and trends that are rapidly reshaping the region. Originally published as an edition of Dcedalus, this updated volume brings together leading scholars to examine such issues as the major paradigmatic shifts occurring in Eastern Europe, the long-te

Research on Eastern Europe stresses the weakness of its civil society and the lack of political and social involvement, neglecting the question: What do people themselves think it means to be a good citizen? This study looks at citizens' definitions of good citizenship in Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, using 2002 European Social Survey data. We investigate mean levels of civic mindedness in these countries and perform regression analyses to investigate whether factors traditionally associated with civic and political participation are also correlated with citizenship norms across Eastern Europe. We show that mean levels of civic mindedness differ significantly across the four Eastern European countries. We find some support for theories on civic and political participation when explaining norms of citizenship, but also demonstrate that individuallevel characteristics are differently related to citizenship norms across the countries of our study. Hence, our findings show that Eastern Europe is not a monolithic and homogeneous bloc, underscoring the importance of taking the specificities of countries into account.