Suchergebnisse

An exploration of recent controversies in US academic circles about the use of sociological theories in communist studies contends that historians favoring the "neototalitarian approach" blame social science concepts, especially modernization theory, for the post-1989 "intellectual disaster," claiming Soviet socialism was attributed with an unrealistic capacity for reform. Although communism's demise has negated some arguments of the modernization approach, it is argued that abandoning sociological theories would be a grave mistake, especially since neototalitarian approaches are not a viable alternative. Cognitive problems of the totalitarian approach are examined, noting the conceptual reorientation that emerged in the 1960s as an attempt to overcome these deficiencies. Sociological explanations of communist systems are reviewed, & the modernization approach is compared to neototalitarian explanatory models of the Soviet breakdown, illuminating theoretical flaws in the latter, & demonstrating that neototalitarian theorists simply add a different evaluative component to the arguments of modernization theorists. Consideration is given to the complex causes of the Soviet downfall & a structure of domination familiar to Soviet research. J. Lindroth