Suchergebnisse

RECENT CHANGES IN THE COMMUNIST WORLD IN GENERAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IN PARTICULAR REVEAL THE EXHAUSTION OF THE LANGUAGE OF SOVIETOLOGY. NEITHER THE THEORIES ADVANCED IN THE WEST TO EXPLAIN COMMUNIST SYSTEMS NOR REVISIONIST CRITIQUES OF COMMUNISM ADVANCED BY THE EAST EUROPEANS THEMSELVES ADEQUATELY EXPLAIN THE CRISIS CURRENTLY BESETTING COMMUNISM. THE NEW SITUATION CALLS FOR NEW THEORIES, WHICH SHOULD RESPOND TO AND ACCOUNT FOR THE TRANSFORMATION TOWARD SOME FORM OF DEMOCRATIC ORDER NOW OCCURRING IN EASTERN EUROPE.

Socialism is currently facing severe challenges as Soviet-type societies admit political & economic failure. The original agenda of socialism & the issues raised by socialists do have value; the problem lies in the prevailing lack of political imagination. The view of socialism that posits total transcendence, new culture, new humans, & a new world vision, is a simplistic form of socialism to be discredited, as is the welfare state, which lacks positive & creative energy & is currently collapsing. It is argued that a resurrection of social-democratic welfare socialism is possible in the long term; the present crisis provides an opportunity for self-education & for better understanding socialism's role in the world. C. Grindle

The contrasting political courses of two leaders of the USSR -- Nikita Khrushchev & Mikhail Gorbachev -- are analyzed, based on a comparison of their differing geneses. Khrushchev's reform attempt (which failed) arose from a crisis of legitimation, following Josef Stalin's death & unrest in the satellite nations of the USSR's empire. Gorbachev's attempt (still too new for its outcome to be judged) has emerged from crises in three areas: (1) an economic crisis, in which the ailing industrial sector is unable to meet the economy's need for expansion or the demand for consumer goods; (2) a crisis of the ruling class, manifesting itself in widespread corruption, & linked with the fact that Leonard Brezhnev's gerontocracy blocked advancement for the younger generation of Communist Party leaders; & (3) a demographic crisis, ie, slowed population growth, which poses problems for the maintenance of the LF, the huge military, & the dominance of the Russian people within their empire. Five conditions are outlined that must be met for Gorbachev's modernization strategies to be successful. C. Waters