The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland

by Saxonberg; Steven

• ISBN13: 9789058230973
• ISBN10: 905823097X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

With a foreword by Seymour Lipset, Hoover Institution and George Mason University, USA The Fall examines one of the twentieth century's great historical puzzles: why did the communist-led regimes in Eastern Europe collapse so quickly and why was the process of collapse so different from country to country? This major study explains why the impetus for change in Poland and Hungary came from the regimes themselves, while in Czechoslovakia and East Germany it was mass movements which led to the downfall of the regimes.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Seymore Martin Lipset
Acknowledgements	xv
Abbreviations	xvii
Part I: Theory
The Collapse	3	(32)
The Problem	3	(2)
The Events	5	(8)
Conventional Explanations	13	(5)
Explanations for the Differences in the Process of Change	18	(2)
Explanations of Revolutionary Change	20	(4)
Explanations of Institutional Compromise	24	(6)
Summary	30	(2)
Disposition and More Specific Questions	32	(3)
The Main Framework	35	(32)
Choice of Countries	35	(3)
Towards a Neo-Marxian Approach	38	(2)
Class Analysis	40	(13)
Interests	53	(8)
Political Economy	61	(2)
The Next Steps	63	(4)
Part II: The Underlying Causes of the Collapse
The Economic Situation	67	(28)
Economic Decline	67	(2)
Subjective Interpretations of the Economy	69	(8)
The Causes of the Economic Crisis	77	(1)
The Failure of Economic Policies	78	(1)
The Oil Crisis	79	(1)
Military Spending	80	(1)
Changes in Technology and the World Economy	81	(12)
Conclusion on the Causes of the Economic Crisis	93	(2)
Implementing Economic Reforms	95	(32)
A Dialectical Model	95	(5)
Conflicts of Institutional Interests	100	(4)
The Conflict between the National and Soviet Ruling Elites	104	(2)
The Conflict between the Party Elite and the Workers	106	(1)
The Conflict between the Party and the State	107	(14)
The Conflict of Interest between Different Levels of the Party-State	121	(2)
The Conflicts of Interest within Levels	123	(2)
Conclusion	125	(2)
The Rise of Gorbachev and the Fall of Legitimacy	127	(40)
The Gorbachev Factor	127	(16)
The Loss of Legitimacy	143	(20)
Summary	163	(4)
Part III: Differences in the Process of Collapse
Regime Policy Before 1988	167	(40)
Pragmatic Acceptance	167	(16)
Policy Before 1988	183	(19)
Conclusion	202	(5)
Civil Society and the Degree of Liberalization	207	(20)
Terminology	207	(4)
Reformist Poland and Hungary	211	(9)
The Anti-Reformist GDR and CSSR	220	(4)
Conclusion	224	(3)
Social Movements Before 1988	227	(38)
Failed Uprisings: Participation in East European Social Movements	227	(2)
Recent Explanations of Social Movements in 1989	229	(2)
A Neo-Marxian Synthesis	231	(14)
Exemplifying the Partial Model: The Unsuccessful Revolts	245	(17)
Conclusion on Uprisings	262	(3)
Institutional Compromise	265	(36)
The Discourse	265	(6)
Poland	271	(12)
Hungary	283	(15)
Conclusion	298	(3)
Non-violent Revolutions	301	(60)
The GDR	303	(13)
The CSSR	316	(40)
Conclusion	356	(5)
Summary of the Model	361	(26)
Crisis of the Economic Base	361	(2)
The Decline of Ideological Legitmacy	363	(1)
The Failure of Economic Reforms	364	(1)
Further Economic Decline and the Complete Loss of Ideological Legitimacy	365	(1)
Further Decline: Gorbachev and the Choice of Liberalization or Retrenchment	366	(3)
A Potentially Revolutionary Situation Emerges	369	(6)
Reformers Start Negotiations in Poland and Hungary	375	(2)
The Orthodox Regimes Remain Paralyzed in the Face of Revolution	377	(4)
Theoretical Implications	381	(6)
Epilogue: The Rightwing Shift after 1989	387	(10)
Czechoslovakia	387	(4)
East Germany	391	(1)
Hungary	392	(1)
Poland	393	(4)
Appendix: Notes on the Interviews and Documentation	397	(8)
Interviews	397	(5)
Documentation	402	(3)
References	405	(26)
Index	431