{"title":"Russian Neo-Etacratic Society and its Stratification: Discovering Real Social Groups","authors":"O. Shkaratan, G. Yastrebov","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511814","url":null,"abstract":"Current empirical sociology features a limited set of indicators for associating individuals with certain social groups (classes or strata). European sociologists rely heavily on such an informative descriptor as occupation, which has become institutionalized and thus produces certain requirements of human, social and cultural resources for individuals to perform the underlying functions. However, this indicator manifests at least two substantial restrictions: first, it is natural that certain types of economic activity are historically less stable than the social classes with which they are associated; and second, Russian history demonstrates that in a developed society the system of occupations is consistent with its institutional set-up and system of values, which are transferred from generation to generation. In Russia specific occupations are associated with a certain character of labour yet not with particular status characteristics that should result from the corporate nature of professional associations. In fact, in that society there exists a unique form of social stratification, in which a hierarchy of social estates dominates elements of true class differentiation.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114410904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Among the Bolsheviks: Stalin and Friends from the Inside","authors":"J. Callaghan","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511863","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511863","url":null,"abstract":"Paul R. Gregory and Norman Naimark (eds.), The Lost Politburo Transcripts: From Collective Rule to Stalin’s Dictatorship (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008). Pp. viiiþ271; illustrations; bibliography; index. $50.00. ISBN 978-0-300-13424-7 The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933–1949, introduced and edited by Ivo Banac (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003). Pp. livþ495; illustrations. $52.00. ISBN 0-300-09794-8 Roger Gough, A Good Comrade: Janos Kadar, Communism and Hungary (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006). Pp. xiiþ311; notes; bibliography; index. £24.50. ISBN 978-1-84511-058-1 Aldo Agosti, Palmiro Togliatti: A Biography (London: I.B. Tauris, 2008). £49:50. Pp. xixþ339, ISBN 978-84511-726-9","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133869297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Business and Politics in the Russian Regions","authors":"E. Chebankova","doi":"10.1080/13523270903522845","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903522845","url":null,"abstract":"By the end of Putin's first term in office, Russia's regional authorities and representatives of large corporations had established effective non-institutional relationships. In response to these dynamics, the Kremlin launched a range of policy initiatives aimed at formalizing the political dialogue between the two sides and making their unofficial interactions less mutually beneficial. With the exception of changes that took place in the regional electoral systems, such policies have been predominantly borrowed from well-functioning Western models. However, it is clear that the political style and the context within which such ideas have been implemented have subverted the initial intentions and led to the emergence of alternative, and at times more sophisticated, forms of relational informality. The relationship between business and the Russian state continues to evolve, and depends on the intangible factors of culture and style as much as on institutional structures and rules.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133723253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is Putin's Regime Less Vulnerable than Monarchist Russia in 1916 or the Soviet Union in 1990?","authors":"Vladimir Shlapentokh","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511822","url":null,"abstract":"Former president Vladimir Putin still appears to dominate an unassailable regime from the position of prime minister. However, parallels with imperial Russia shortly before the tsar's overthrow, and with its Soviet successor in the year before the union collapsed, suggest that the security of the regime should not be taken for granted. The failure of ‘experts’ to identify the weakness of the earlier regimes should teach us to be prepared for the unexpected. The parallels between tsarist Russia and the mature Soviet Union are strong, and Putin has publicly shown his appreciation of both previous regimes. In some respects, Putin's regime is close to its tsarist predecessor, and in some the parallels with the Soviet case are compelling; but the wealth of oil and gas appeared to give Putin's Russia a measure of invulnerability that neither earlier regime enjoyed. Yet technological disasters, the possible limits to the Russian nation's legendary patience, the expressed apprehensions on the part of the intelligentsia, and the shock of the global economic crisis of the autumn of 2008, place the regime's supposed invulnerability in a different light. In particular, it lacks a clear and inspiring ideology that could be used to unite the population round the regime. The sudden demise of the regime is not inevitable, but history teaches us not to be surprised by the unforeseen.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"261 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122715459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stresses and Opportunities of Transformation: The Impact on Health","authors":"R. Rose, M. Bobák","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511830","url":null,"abstract":"The combination of stresses and opportunities following the transformation of the communist bloc countries affected the health of individuals in contrasting ways. Since individual health reflects an accumulation of conditions over a lifetime, the differential evolution of the mean level of health in communist bloc countries and OECD countries has been maintained subsequently. Within-nation differences in individual health have also continued. A multiplicity of explanations exist for health differences, including individual socio-economic resources, stresses, opportunities and national context. Survey data from the 13-country New Europe Barometer, which spans ten new EU member states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, show that psychological resources affecting how individuals respond to the combined stresses and opportunities of transformation are of particular importance, and so too is living in a society transformed from part of the communist bloc to part of the European Union.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131232730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Russia's Managed Democracy and the Civil G8 in 2006","authors":"P. Jordan","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511848","url":null,"abstract":"In 2006, during Russia's presidency of the Group of Eight industrial powers (G8), the Russian government claimed to have democratized G8 decision making by creating a new consultation mechanism for non-governmental organizations, the Civil G8, which Russian officials largely viewed as a vehicle for improving Russia's global reputation. Russian participants used it as a forum for criticizing the Putin regime's human rights record and expanding their NGO networks. Moreover, they contested the Civil G8's meaning, objectives and benefits. This contestation reflects well on the forum's organizers, as it shows that they admitted NGOs with diverse political views. While Russian participants' comments about their Civil G8 experience were more positive than negative, several found it had little or no influence on G8 decision making and failed to resolve the domestic problems that NGOs faced, including the regime's increased regulations of their activities.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"376 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132033282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking the Political Economy of Conservative Transition: The Case of Vietnam","authors":"A. Fforde","doi":"10.1080/13523270903511855","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903511855","url":null,"abstract":"The transition ‘from plan to market’ under a politically conservative regime in Vietnam, where the communist party remains in power, can be seen as an example of a process in which evolving endogenous forces drove and resourced institutional change. Two sets of phenomena are analytically important. The first may be understood as the creation and seeking out of economic rents in the ‘neo-classical’ sense of resources available ‘below economic costs’; the second, more ‘classical’, concentrates upon the central importance of ‘appropriable resources’. These two are both important because, in trying to understand emergent capitalism after transition, they push to the fore the historical emergence of factor markets (land, labour and capital). Social networks created during transition for ‘rent-switching’ later support advantageous access to resources created for plan implementation and may then, as a form of capitalism emerges, be used to access resources in forms appropriate to market-oriented activity. It becomes clear that ‘rent-switching’ may have effects upon static economic efficiency that are positive during transition but negative afterwards, so that the significance of ‘rents’ depends upon context.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127347494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creating New Identities, New Nations, New States","authors":"R. J. Hill","doi":"10.1080/13523270903310944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903310944","url":null,"abstract":"Catherine Baker, Christopher J. Gerry, Barbara Madaj, Liz Mellish and Jana Nahadilová (eds.), Nation in Formation: Inclusion and Exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe (London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, 2007). Pp.xviiiþ226; notes on contributors; index. £16.00 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-903425-77-7 Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008). Pp.xxviþ363; tables; appendices; references; index. £46.95 (hardback); £17.95 (paperback). ISBN 9780-691-13595-3; 978-0-691-13596-0 Ilan Peleg, Democratizing the Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Pp.viiiþ211; references; index. £38.00/$75.00 (hardback); £19.99/ $24.99 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-521-88088-6; 978-0-521-70732-9 Philip G. Roeder, Where Nation-States Come From: Institutional Change in the Age of Nationalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007). Pp.xiþ353; figures; tables; appendix; index. £53.00/$77.00 (hardback); £22.95/$32.95 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-691-12728-6; 978-0-691-13467-3","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"99 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116634696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Tool in the Toolbox: Assessing the Impact of EU Membership on Party Politics in Slovakia","authors":"T. Haughton, M. Rybář","doi":"10.1080/13523270903310928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903310928","url":null,"abstract":"Although EU accession created some expectations of change, an examination of party politics in Slovakia demonstrates the limited impact of EU membership on party organization and programmes during the first four years of membership. Moreover, distinguishing between ad hoc and coordinated change suggests that only weak Europeanization occurred. Nonetheless, the EU played three roles in the post-accession period: as a source of agreement, a reference point, and a measure of competence.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117133127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Europeanization of Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe? The Impact of EU Entry on Issue Stances, Salience and Programmatic Coherence","authors":"S. Whitefield, R. Rohrschneider","doi":"10.1080/13523270903310936","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270903310936","url":null,"abstract":"The completion of the two-wave entry of CEE states in the EU potentially changes the impact of European integration issues on party politics in the region. Membership entails movement from a general aspiration to ‘return to Europe’ to hard costs and specific policy instruments. But are these changes reflected in the Europe-relevant issue stances taken by parties and in the importance parties assign to them in their electoral appeals? Has the relationship of European and integration issues to the broader issue bases of party competition changed? Data from expert surveys of political parties in the ten new CEE member states conducted just before and just after accession reveal that, in line with expectations from comparative literature on party competition, entry has had little impact on party stances but greater impact on the salience of integration issues.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124708233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}