Zoltan Barany
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691137681
- eISBN:
- 9781400845491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137681.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines three East European states: Slovenia, a small country that has enjoyed a smooth transition to democracy and market economy; Russia, the world's largest state, which has failed ...
More
This chapter examines three East European states: Slovenia, a small country that has enjoyed a smooth transition to democracy and market economy; Russia, the world's largest state, which has failed to establish democratic rule; and Romania, a medium-sized Balkan country that, following some early stumbling, found its way into NATO and the European Union. The three postcommunist states suggest very different experiences of building democratic armies. No postcommunist country had fewer major problems in establishing democratic civil–military relations than Slovenia, even though it had to create a new army on the rather flimsy foundations of the Territorial Defense Force. Meanwhile, the specific shortcomings of Russian military politics reflect the power relations that have doomed Russia's democratization prospects. Romania's postcommunist record of building civil–military relations falls between the two others in terms of democratic performance, though it is much closer to Slovenia than to Russia.Less
This chapter examines three East European states: Slovenia, a small country that has enjoyed a smooth transition to democracy and market economy; Russia, the world's largest state, which has failed to establish democratic rule; and Romania, a medium-sized Balkan country that, following some early stumbling, found its way into NATO and the European Union. The three postcommunist states suggest very different experiences of building democratic armies. No postcommunist country had fewer major problems in establishing democratic civil–military relations than Slovenia, even though it had to create a new army on the rather flimsy foundations of the Territorial Defense Force. Meanwhile, the specific shortcomings of Russian military politics reflect the power relations that have doomed Russia's democratization prospects. Romania's postcommunist record of building civil–military relations falls between the two others in terms of democratic performance, though it is much closer to Slovenia than to Russia.
Gerald M. Easter
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451195
- eISBN:
- 9780801465710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451195.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The postcommunist transitions produced two very different types of states. The “contractual” state is associated with the countries of Eastern Europe, which moved toward democratic regimes, ...
More
The postcommunist transitions produced two very different types of states. The “contractual” state is associated with the countries of Eastern Europe, which moved toward democratic regimes, consensual relations with society, and clear boundaries between political power and economic wealth. The “predatory” state is associated with the successors to the USSR, which instead developed authoritarian regimes, coercive relations with society, and poorly defined boundaries between the political and economic realms. This book shows how the cumulative result of the many battles between state coercion and societal capital over taxation gave rise to these distinctive transition outcomes. The book highlights the interconnected paths that led from the fiscal crisis of the old regime through the revenue bargains of transitional tax regimes to the eventual reconfiguration of state–society relations. Focused comparison of Poland and Russia exemplify postcommunism's divergent institutional forms. The Polish case shows how conflicts over taxation influenced the emergence of a rule-of-law contractual state, social-market capitalism, and civil society. The Russian case reveals how revenue imperatives reinforced the emergence of a rule-by-law predatory state, concessions-style capitalism, and dependent society.Less
The postcommunist transitions produced two very different types of states. The “contractual” state is associated with the countries of Eastern Europe, which moved toward democratic regimes, consensual relations with society, and clear boundaries between political power and economic wealth. The “predatory” state is associated with the successors to the USSR, which instead developed authoritarian regimes, coercive relations with society, and poorly defined boundaries between the political and economic realms. This book shows how the cumulative result of the many battles between state coercion and societal capital over taxation gave rise to these distinctive transition outcomes. The book highlights the interconnected paths that led from the fiscal crisis of the old regime through the revenue bargains of transitional tax regimes to the eventual reconfiguration of state–society relations. Focused comparison of Poland and Russia exemplify postcommunism's divergent institutional forms. The Polish case shows how conflicts over taxation influenced the emergence of a rule-of-law contractual state, social-market capitalism, and civil society. The Russian case reveals how revenue imperatives reinforced the emergence of a rule-by-law predatory state, concessions-style capitalism, and dependent society.
Besnik Pula
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503605138
- eISBN:
- 9781503605985
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503605138.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
Today, by a number of measures, the ex-socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe are among the most globalized in the world. This book argues that the origins of Central and Eastern Europe’s ...
More
Today, by a number of measures, the ex-socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe are among the most globalized in the world. This book argues that the origins of Central and Eastern Europe’s heavily transnationalized economies should be sought in their socialist past and the efforts of reformers in the 1970s and 1980s to expand ties between domestic industry and transnational corporations (TNCs). The book’s comparative-historical analysis examines the trajectories of six socialist and postsocialist economies, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The second part of the book focuses on the region’s deepening specialization in the 2000s as a TNC-dominated transnational manufacturing hub. It identifies three international market roles that the region’s state came to occupy in the transformation: assembly platform, intermediate producer, and combined. It explains divergence within the region through the comparative analysis of the politics of institutional adjustment after socialism.Less
Today, by a number of measures, the ex-socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe are among the most globalized in the world. This book argues that the origins of Central and Eastern Europe’s heavily transnationalized economies should be sought in their socialist past and the efforts of reformers in the 1970s and 1980s to expand ties between domestic industry and transnational corporations (TNCs). The book’s comparative-historical analysis examines the trajectories of six socialist and postsocialist economies, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The second part of the book focuses on the region’s deepening specialization in the 2000s as a TNC-dominated transnational manufacturing hub. It identifies three international market roles that the region’s state came to occupy in the transformation: assembly platform, intermediate producer, and combined. It explains divergence within the region through the comparative analysis of the politics of institutional adjustment after socialism.
Bryce Lease
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784992958
- eISBN:
- 9781526115263
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784992958.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This monograph takes as its subject the dynamic new range of performance practices that have been developed since the demise of communism in the flourishing theatrical landscape of Poland. After ...
More
This monograph takes as its subject the dynamic new range of performance practices that have been developed since the demise of communism in the flourishing theatrical landscape of Poland. After 1989, Lease argues, the theatre has retained its historical role as the crucial space for debating and interrogating cultural and political identities. Providing access to scholarship and criticism not readily accessible to an English-speaking readership, this study surveys the rebirth of the theatre as a site of public intervention and social criticism since the establishment of democracy and the proliferation of theatre makers that have flaunted cultural commonplaces and begged new questions of Polish culture. Lease suggests that a radical democratic pluralism is only tenable through the destabilization of attempts to essentialize Polish national identity, focusing on the development of new theatre practices that interrogate the rise of nationalism, alternative sexual identities and forms of kinship, gender equality, contested histories of antisemitism, and postcolonial encounters. Lease elaborates a new theory of political theatre as part of the public sphere. The main contention is that the most significant change in performance practice after 1989 has been from opposition to the state to a more pluralistic practice that engages with marginalized identities purposefully left out of the rhetoric of freedom and independence.Less
This monograph takes as its subject the dynamic new range of performance practices that have been developed since the demise of communism in the flourishing theatrical landscape of Poland. After 1989, Lease argues, the theatre has retained its historical role as the crucial space for debating and interrogating cultural and political identities. Providing access to scholarship and criticism not readily accessible to an English-speaking readership, this study surveys the rebirth of the theatre as a site of public intervention and social criticism since the establishment of democracy and the proliferation of theatre makers that have flaunted cultural commonplaces and begged new questions of Polish culture. Lease suggests that a radical democratic pluralism is only tenable through the destabilization of attempts to essentialize Polish national identity, focusing on the development of new theatre practices that interrogate the rise of nationalism, alternative sexual identities and forms of kinship, gender equality, contested histories of antisemitism, and postcolonial encounters. Lease elaborates a new theory of political theatre as part of the public sphere. The main contention is that the most significant change in performance practice after 1989 has been from opposition to the state to a more pluralistic practice that engages with marginalized identities purposefully left out of the rhetoric of freedom and independence.
Conor O'Dwyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479876631
- eISBN:
- 9781479877829
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479876631.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This chapter presents an overview of the wide variation in the politics of homosexuality and the trajectories of LGBT activism in postcommunist Europe since 1989. Against the conventional wisdom that ...
More
This chapter presents an overview of the wide variation in the politics of homosexuality and the trajectories of LGBT activism in postcommunist Europe since 1989. Against the conventional wisdom that this region is noteworthy precisely for its lack of progress regarding sexuality, this chapter’s historical-comparative perspective reveals examples of surprisingly well-organized and politically mobilized social movements advocating LGBT rights, often in those countries associated with resurgent traditionalism and backlash against transnational rights norms. This variation is puzzling in terms of the predominant “grand narratives” of post-1989 political development, namely, that of weak civil society and that of transnational diffusion and Europeanization through accession to the European Union. A comparative analytical framework is presented to explain how and under what conditions transnational pressures may boost the organizational development of LGBT-rights activism in postcommunist societies.Less
This chapter presents an overview of the wide variation in the politics of homosexuality and the trajectories of LGBT activism in postcommunist Europe since 1989. Against the conventional wisdom that this region is noteworthy precisely for its lack of progress regarding sexuality, this chapter’s historical-comparative perspective reveals examples of surprisingly well-organized and politically mobilized social movements advocating LGBT rights, often in those countries associated with resurgent traditionalism and backlash against transnational rights norms. This variation is puzzling in terms of the predominant “grand narratives” of post-1989 political development, namely, that of weak civil society and that of transnational diffusion and Europeanization through accession to the European Union. A comparative analytical framework is presented to explain how and under what conditions transnational pressures may boost the organizational development of LGBT-rights activism in postcommunist societies.
Barbara Rose Lange
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190245368
- eISBN:
- 9780190245399
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190245368.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Local Fusions: Folk Music Experiments in Central Europe at the Millennium explores musical life in Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria between the end of the Cold War and the world financial crisis of ...
More
Local Fusions: Folk Music Experiments in Central Europe at the Millennium explores musical life in Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria between the end of the Cold War and the world financial crisis of 2008. It describes how artists made new social commentary and tried new ways of working together as the political and economic atmosphere changed. The book presents case studies from Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna, drawing from ethnographic research and from conversations about the arts in Central European publications. The case studies illustrate how young musicians redefined a Central European history of elevating the arts by fusing poetry, local folk music, and other vernacular music with jazz, Asian music, art music, and electronic dance music. Their projects contradicted ethnic exclusions and gender asymmetries in Central Europe’s past expressive culture and in its present far-right political movements. The case studies demonstrate how musicians had to become skilled neoliberal actors, even as they asserted female power, broadened masculinities, and declared affinity with regional minorities such as the Romani (Gypsy) people. The author contrasts the live performances and physical recordings of world music 1.0 with the peer-to-peer networks of world music 2.0, arguing that Central European musicians occupy a liminal space between the two spheres. An epilogue describes how economic shocks of the late 2000s transformed sociality, creative processes, and the market for musical experiments in Central Europe.Less
Local Fusions: Folk Music Experiments in Central Europe at the Millennium explores musical life in Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria between the end of the Cold War and the world financial crisis of 2008. It describes how artists made new social commentary and tried new ways of working together as the political and economic atmosphere changed. The book presents case studies from Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna, drawing from ethnographic research and from conversations about the arts in Central European publications. The case studies illustrate how young musicians redefined a Central European history of elevating the arts by fusing poetry, local folk music, and other vernacular music with jazz, Asian music, art music, and electronic dance music. Their projects contradicted ethnic exclusions and gender asymmetries in Central Europe’s past expressive culture and in its present far-right political movements. The case studies demonstrate how musicians had to become skilled neoliberal actors, even as they asserted female power, broadened masculinities, and declared affinity with regional minorities such as the Romani (Gypsy) people. The author contrasts the live performances and physical recordings of world music 1.0 with the peer-to-peer networks of world music 2.0, arguing that Central European musicians occupy a liminal space between the two spheres. An epilogue describes how economic shocks of the late 2000s transformed sociality, creative processes, and the market for musical experiments in Central Europe.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Chapter 2 presents the results of intersubjective and autoethnographic research with Albanian (and Romanian) male sex workers in Italy and Greece in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It analyzes the ...
More
Chapter 2 presents the results of intersubjective and autoethnographic research with Albanian (and Romanian) male sex workers in Italy and Greece in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It analyzes the discourses and practices through which young migrant men both reproduced and challenged the heteronormative and homophobic way in which the relation between masculinities and sexual conduct was negotiated at home. By selfrepresenting as straight and ‘only active’ young men who are ‘fucking queers’ in order to respond to ‘economic necessity’ young Albanian and Romanian migrants abide, publicly, by heteronormative canons of masculinity while engaging in sex work with other men and affording more affluent and individualized lifestyles. The chapter shows how the author used irony and flirting as strategic intersubjective, relational, and affective strategies to challenge normative selfrepresentations. It also shows that young people’s engagement in migration and sex work resulted from the agencing decisions they made in relation to moral orientations – socio-cultural alignments of models of personhood, mobilities and objects – that emerged in relation to a macro-historical event: the further commodification and individualization in late-modern, neoliberal and postindustrial times of the traditions, institutions, livelihoods, and authorities that had already been fluidified by modernisation.Less
Chapter 2 presents the results of intersubjective and autoethnographic research with Albanian (and Romanian) male sex workers in Italy and Greece in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It analyzes the discourses and practices through which young migrant men both reproduced and challenged the heteronormative and homophobic way in which the relation between masculinities and sexual conduct was negotiated at home. By selfrepresenting as straight and ‘only active’ young men who are ‘fucking queers’ in order to respond to ‘economic necessity’ young Albanian and Romanian migrants abide, publicly, by heteronormative canons of masculinity while engaging in sex work with other men and affording more affluent and individualized lifestyles. The chapter shows how the author used irony and flirting as strategic intersubjective, relational, and affective strategies to challenge normative selfrepresentations. It also shows that young people’s engagement in migration and sex work resulted from the agencing decisions they made in relation to moral orientations – socio-cultural alignments of models of personhood, mobilities and objects – that emerged in relation to a macro-historical event: the further commodification and individualization in late-modern, neoliberal and postindustrial times of the traditions, institutions, livelihoods, and authorities that had already been fluidified by modernisation.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as ...
More
Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as “traffickers” to understand their diverse life and work experiences in the sex industry. The experiences of agents who managed sex work through violence (and ended up in jail) in early postcommunist Albania are compared with the more consensual and fluid management techniques adopted by Albanian and Romanian agents in later postcommunist times. The chapter shows that the sex-gendered subjectivities, interpersonal relations, and roles that agents embody reflect ambivalences and contradictions mirroring those faced by the women they manage. These shared ambivalences and contradictions are embedded in the deep socioeconomic and geopolitical transformations taking place in the societies of origin and destination of migrants working in the sex industry. The chapter also discusses the implications of these intersubjective dynamics and socioeconomic transformations for antitrafficking interventions, which should acknowledge that migrant and nonmigrant sex workers, including minors and people working under the management of third-party agents, can and do consent to work in the sex industry in order to fulfill their mobile orientations.Less
Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as “traffickers” to understand their diverse life and work experiences in the sex industry. The experiences of agents who managed sex work through violence (and ended up in jail) in early postcommunist Albania are compared with the more consensual and fluid management techniques adopted by Albanian and Romanian agents in later postcommunist times. The chapter shows that the sex-gendered subjectivities, interpersonal relations, and roles that agents embody reflect ambivalences and contradictions mirroring those faced by the women they manage. These shared ambivalences and contradictions are embedded in the deep socioeconomic and geopolitical transformations taking place in the societies of origin and destination of migrants working in the sex industry. The chapter also discusses the implications of these intersubjective dynamics and socioeconomic transformations for antitrafficking interventions, which should acknowledge that migrant and nonmigrant sex workers, including minors and people working under the management of third-party agents, can and do consent to work in the sex industry in order to fulfill their mobile orientations.
Besnik Pula
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503605138
- eISBN:
- 9781503605985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503605138.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The book’s concluding chapter reexamines patterns of postsocialist development in light of historical opportunities and constraints and patterns of domestic political forces. It recaps the book’s key ...
More
The book’s concluding chapter reexamines patterns of postsocialist development in light of historical opportunities and constraints and patterns of domestic political forces. It recaps the book’s key claim on the importance of organizational capacities these economies built during the reform period of the 1970s in opening the path for the region’s integration into the capitalist world economy after 1989. The chapter summarizes comparative paths of transformation by highlighting temporal sequences and intervening causal mechanisms during critical junctures in determining institutional developments in the region.Less
The book’s concluding chapter reexamines patterns of postsocialist development in light of historical opportunities and constraints and patterns of domestic political forces. It recaps the book’s key claim on the importance of organizational capacities these economies built during the reform period of the 1970s in opening the path for the region’s integration into the capitalist world economy after 1989. The chapter summarizes comparative paths of transformation by highlighting temporal sequences and intervening causal mechanisms during critical junctures in determining institutional developments in the region.
Sergei Prozorov
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781474410526
- eISBN:
- 9781474418744
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474410526.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Chapter 1 addresses the postcommunist ‘remnant’ of Stalinism, which survived the demise of the USSR and has been undergoing rehabilitation under Putin. We trace the logics of the two ...
More
Chapter 1 addresses the postcommunist ‘remnant’ of Stalinism, which survived the demise of the USSR and has been undergoing rehabilitation under Putin. We trace the logics of the two ‘destalinizations’ in the Soviet Union (1956-1964, 1985-1991) and argue that it was the confluence of these two logics that enabled the revival of Stalinism in the postcommunist period. While in the Khruschev Thaw Stalinism was denounced as a personal deviation from and betrayal of ‘true’ Leninism and ascribed to pathological features of Stalin’s personality, in the Gorbachev period the denunciation of Stalinism gradually embraced Communist ideology in its entirety, which was judged terrorist and criminal. If the logics of the two processes are superimposed on one another, Stalin appears as a traitor to a criminal system that deserved to be betrayed and hence as a positive figure, the saviour of Russia from the excesses of Bolshevism. Emerging in the fringes of the political discourse in the 1990s, this image was embraced during the Putin presidency, though Stalinism was no longer understood in terms of the synthesis of communism and nationalism, but rather in terms of the effective constitution and management of a new social reality. In this chapter we also address the paradoxical orientation of Putinism to the Stalinist past, concluding that in today’s Russia Stalinism in its biopolitical sense has become a quasi-transcendental condition of political discourse as such.Less
Chapter 1 addresses the postcommunist ‘remnant’ of Stalinism, which survived the demise of the USSR and has been undergoing rehabilitation under Putin. We trace the logics of the two ‘destalinizations’ in the Soviet Union (1956-1964, 1985-1991) and argue that it was the confluence of these two logics that enabled the revival of Stalinism in the postcommunist period. While in the Khruschev Thaw Stalinism was denounced as a personal deviation from and betrayal of ‘true’ Leninism and ascribed to pathological features of Stalin’s personality, in the Gorbachev period the denunciation of Stalinism gradually embraced Communist ideology in its entirety, which was judged terrorist and criminal. If the logics of the two processes are superimposed on one another, Stalin appears as a traitor to a criminal system that deserved to be betrayed and hence as a positive figure, the saviour of Russia from the excesses of Bolshevism. Emerging in the fringes of the political discourse in the 1990s, this image was embraced during the Putin presidency, though Stalinism was no longer understood in terms of the synthesis of communism and nationalism, but rather in terms of the effective constitution and management of a new social reality. In this chapter we also address the paradoxical orientation of Putinism to the Stalinist past, concluding that in today’s Russia Stalinism in its biopolitical sense has become a quasi-transcendental condition of political discourse as such.
Bryce Lease
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784992958
- eISBN:
- 9781526115263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784992958.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
While nationalism under communism had particular social functions, some (though not all) of which held subversive potentials, in a liberal democracy nationalism often attests to the needs of ...
More
While nationalism under communism had particular social functions, some (though not all) of which held subversive potentials, in a liberal democracy nationalism often attests to the needs of conservative factions that foreclose contestation, counter the conditions for free individual self-development, mobilize popular anxieties and perpetuate domination by constructing the national as an omnipotent apparatus that manages and reduces difference through assimilatory and disciplinary strategies. There is an anxiety expressed about theatre practice that motivates unwavering adherence to particular social formations and classifies community as a site of normative values and fetishized cultural identities. Opposing a nationalistic theatre as a nexus for community spirit that constructs democratically defined difference as a threat to or a violation of the rights of an originary ethnic, national population, I will propose and corroborate a political theatre that encourages dissensus, and which is constitutively disruptive and skeptical of communities that are not heterogeneous and coalitional. Providing an overview of significant developments in theatre practice in the postcommunist environment, the work of key directors, grapple with shifts in terminology relating to Polish politics, and attempt to define the parameters of a political theatre practice is highlighted.Less
While nationalism under communism had particular social functions, some (though not all) of which held subversive potentials, in a liberal democracy nationalism often attests to the needs of conservative factions that foreclose contestation, counter the conditions for free individual self-development, mobilize popular anxieties and perpetuate domination by constructing the national as an omnipotent apparatus that manages and reduces difference through assimilatory and disciplinary strategies. There is an anxiety expressed about theatre practice that motivates unwavering adherence to particular social formations and classifies community as a site of normative values and fetishized cultural identities. Opposing a nationalistic theatre as a nexus for community spirit that constructs democratically defined difference as a threat to or a violation of the rights of an originary ethnic, national population, I will propose and corroborate a political theatre that encourages dissensus, and which is constitutively disruptive and skeptical of communities that are not heterogeneous and coalitional. Providing an overview of significant developments in theatre practice in the postcommunist environment, the work of key directors, grapple with shifts in terminology relating to Polish politics, and attempt to define the parameters of a political theatre practice is highlighted.
Åse Berit Grødeland
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter examines how, at what stage, and why corrupt behavior occurs in public procurement in postcommunist countries. Specifically, it investigates the use of contacts and informal networks in ...
More
This chapter examines how, at what stage, and why corrupt behavior occurs in public procurement in postcommunist countries. Specifically, it investigates the use of contacts and informal networks in public procurement. After a brief methodological introduction, the chapter provides an overview of informal practices in East Central and South Eastern Europe and discusses their relevance to public procurement. It presents survey data to demonstrate the perception of these practices among procurement officials and members of the business community, and concludes with an analysis of factors thought to affect informal practices in postcommunist public procurement. The chapter tests two hypotheses: that informal social relations in public procurement are (1) more widespread in “second wave” than in “first wave” EU member states; and (2) more widespread in the Czech Republic than Slovenia (among the “first wave” EU member states) and in Bulgaria than in Romania (“second wave” EU member states).Less
This chapter examines how, at what stage, and why corrupt behavior occurs in public procurement in postcommunist countries. Specifically, it investigates the use of contacts and informal networks in public procurement. After a brief methodological introduction, the chapter provides an overview of informal practices in East Central and South Eastern Europe and discusses their relevance to public procurement. It presents survey data to demonstrate the perception of these practices among procurement officials and members of the business community, and concludes with an analysis of factors thought to affect informal practices in postcommunist public procurement. The chapter tests two hypotheses: that informal social relations in public procurement are (1) more widespread in “second wave” than in “first wave” EU member states; and (2) more widespread in the Czech Republic than Slovenia (among the “first wave” EU member states) and in Bulgaria than in Romania (“second wave” EU member states).
Amy Linch
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This volume takes a different approach to the study of postcommunism. Rather than beginning with established concepts drawn from democratization studies, it foregrounds the diversity of the ...
More
This volume takes a different approach to the study of postcommunism. Rather than beginning with established concepts drawn from democratization studies, it foregrounds the diversity of the historical experiences and current realities of people in the postcommunist region and the ways in which they are responding to political and economic changes. It examines the causal role ascribed to civil society in theories of democratization. It parses civil society around three themes: justice, mobilization, and hegemony. Justice captures both the reasons for valuing democracy over other forms of government and the normative justification for the use of collective resources toward particular ends at various levels of social organization. Mobilization encompasses the role of society in aggregating individual preferences and resources and demanding the enactment or preservation of a particular vision of justice. Hegemony brings attention to the operation of power and opportunities for resistance at multiple levels of society through the flow of material and symbolic resources. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This volume takes a different approach to the study of postcommunism. Rather than beginning with established concepts drawn from democratization studies, it foregrounds the diversity of the historical experiences and current realities of people in the postcommunist region and the ways in which they are responding to political and economic changes. It examines the causal role ascribed to civil society in theories of democratization. It parses civil society around three themes: justice, mobilization, and hegemony. Justice captures both the reasons for valuing democracy over other forms of government and the normative justification for the use of collective resources toward particular ends at various levels of social organization. Mobilization encompasses the role of society in aggregating individual preferences and resources and demanding the enactment or preservation of a particular vision of justice. Hegemony brings attention to the operation of power and opportunities for resistance at multiple levels of society through the flow of material and symbolic resources. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Ina Merdjanova
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199964031
- eISBN:
- 9780199333226
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199964031.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War. With the newly-gained religious freedom, and in the context of multiple ...
More
This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War. With the newly-gained religious freedom, and in the context of multiple structural and cultural transitions, Muslim communities there underwent remarkable transformations. They sought to renegotiate their place in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. They reclaimed their Islamic faith, practices and identities in a complex geopolitical situation dominated by anti-Muslim sentiments, particularly after 9/11. The rising political and cultural self-awareness of Muslims in Southeast Europe was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Transnational Islamic influences often reinforced Muslim ethnonational identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a “universalist” Islam. The study explores comparatively the transformations of Muslim identities in the region under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors, while also looking at the historical legacies that inform present complexities. Furthermore, it examines the evolving status and roles of Muslim women both in their religious communities and in the larger societies. It challenges representations of Islam and Muslims as external and alien to Europe, which overlook the fact that Europe has considerable indigenous Muslim populations in its southeast part and societies that have developed certain models of negotiation of differences. The book thus adds detail and nuance to ongoing debates about “Islam in Europe.”Less
This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War. With the newly-gained religious freedom, and in the context of multiple structural and cultural transitions, Muslim communities there underwent remarkable transformations. They sought to renegotiate their place in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. They reclaimed their Islamic faith, practices and identities in a complex geopolitical situation dominated by anti-Muslim sentiments, particularly after 9/11. The rising political and cultural self-awareness of Muslims in Southeast Europe was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Transnational Islamic influences often reinforced Muslim ethnonational identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a “universalist” Islam. The study explores comparatively the transformations of Muslim identities in the region under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors, while also looking at the historical legacies that inform present complexities. Furthermore, it examines the evolving status and roles of Muslim women both in their religious communities and in the larger societies. It challenges representations of Islam and Muslims as external and alien to Europe, which overlook the fact that Europe has considerable indigenous Muslim populations in its southeast part and societies that have developed certain models of negotiation of differences. The book thus adds detail and nuance to ongoing debates about “Islam in Europe.”
Thomas C. Wolfe and John Pickles
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter traces the genealogy of concepts employed in research on the postcommunist region to uncover the ideological commitments they import into analysis. It first considers some of the ways in ...
More
This chapter traces the genealogy of concepts employed in research on the postcommunist region to uncover the ideological commitments they import into analysis. It first considers some of the ways in which social justice has been understood in postsocialist studies, how this has been shaped by the ethos of Europe, and how social science contributes to the forms of governmentality emerging in postsocialist states. It then offers four methodological principles that help in thinking about postsocialist forms of social justice. These focus on the importance of contingent relations, hinterlands and contextual analysis, subtraction (or keeping things as simple as they need to be but not simpler) and emergence.Less
This chapter traces the genealogy of concepts employed in research on the postcommunist region to uncover the ideological commitments they import into analysis. It first considers some of the ways in which social justice has been understood in postsocialist studies, how this has been shaped by the ethos of Europe, and how social science contributes to the forms of governmentality emerging in postsocialist states. It then offers four methodological principles that help in thinking about postsocialist forms of social justice. These focus on the importance of contingent relations, hinterlands and contextual analysis, subtraction (or keeping things as simple as they need to be but not simpler) and emergence.
Joanna Regulska and Magdalena Grabowska
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter focuses on women's mobilizations in postcommunist societies. Women of various social backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations have been mobilizing for diverse causes throughout the ...
More
This chapter focuses on women's mobilizations in postcommunist societies. Women of various social backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations have been mobilizing for diverse causes throughout the countries undergoing the transformation from communism to democracy. Some women are mobilizing specifically around the issue of gender equality, and recognition of gender in the social justice rhetoric of various groups is widespread. The chapter suggests that the complex and multidirectional mobilizations by women in the region challenge four hegemonies: (1) the nation-state; (2) patriarchal culture; (3) the neoliberal paradigm of economic reforms; and (4) the predominance of Western feminism. With attention to the particularities of the postcommunist context and the variety of transformative trajectories throughout the region, it examines how these hegemonies are being challenged and how counterhegemonies are produced. It further delineates possible new conceptualizations of women's mobilization that capture these fragmented, multilayered, and at times perplexing postcommunist experiences.Less
This chapter focuses on women's mobilizations in postcommunist societies. Women of various social backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations have been mobilizing for diverse causes throughout the countries undergoing the transformation from communism to democracy. Some women are mobilizing specifically around the issue of gender equality, and recognition of gender in the social justice rhetoric of various groups is widespread. The chapter suggests that the complex and multidirectional mobilizations by women in the region challenge four hegemonies: (1) the nation-state; (2) patriarchal culture; (3) the neoliberal paradigm of economic reforms; and (4) the predominance of Western feminism. With attention to the particularities of the postcommunist context and the variety of transformative trajectories throughout the region, it examines how these hegemonies are being challenged and how counterhegemonies are produced. It further delineates possible new conceptualizations of women's mobilization that capture these fragmented, multilayered, and at times perplexing postcommunist experiences.
Laura Lovin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter provides a wide-ranging survey of women's mobilizations in Romania. Collective action for women's and gender issues is evident in the activity of women's NGOs, women's organizations ...
More
This chapter provides a wide-ranging survey of women's mobilizations in Romania. Collective action for women's and gender issues is evident in the activity of women's NGOs, women's organizations within political parties, campaigns to stop violence against women, and participation in women-related international projects, as well as women's festivals and LGBT festivals. Women and gender concerns are developed and pursued through women's and gender studies programs in university curricula, the publishing of feminist journals, and cultural activities to promote female artists and engage themes related to gender and sexuality. The launching of gender studies collections, literature for and by women, and the presence of women's professional organizations also advance the conceptualization of women's and gender issues and galvanize public energy toward addressing them. Such projects often create and awaken tensions and fresh normative impulses, but they nonetheless introduce new vocabularies that facilitate the assertion and affirmation of activist subjectivities.Less
This chapter provides a wide-ranging survey of women's mobilizations in Romania. Collective action for women's and gender issues is evident in the activity of women's NGOs, women's organizations within political parties, campaigns to stop violence against women, and participation in women-related international projects, as well as women's festivals and LGBT festivals. Women and gender concerns are developed and pursued through women's and gender studies programs in university curricula, the publishing of feminist journals, and cultural activities to promote female artists and engage themes related to gender and sexuality. The launching of gender studies collections, literature for and by women, and the presence of women's professional organizations also advance the conceptualization of women's and gender issues and galvanize public energy toward addressing them. Such projects often create and awaken tensions and fresh normative impulses, but they nonetheless introduce new vocabularies that facilitate the assertion and affirmation of activist subjectivities.
Medea Badashvili
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter examines the impact of transformation from communism to democracy on women's social and political status in Georgia. It identifies the factors that shaped Georgian women's experience ...
More
This chapter examines the impact of transformation from communism to democracy on women's social and political status in Georgia. It identifies the factors that shaped Georgian women's experience during the first twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and demonstrates the steps taken institutionally and through women's activism to address women's marginalized status. It argues that although much progress has been made with respect to gender equality in Georgia during the first decade of the twenty-first century, much is left to do. The issue of gender equality still needs to be successfully integrated into the state's policy agenda, especially in the political and economic policy of the government, allocation of government funds, labor market regulation, social policy, and health care. The obstacles for women's full participation in public life must also be addressed.Less
This chapter examines the impact of transformation from communism to democracy on women's social and political status in Georgia. It identifies the factors that shaped Georgian women's experience during the first twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and demonstrates the steps taken institutionally and through women's activism to address women's marginalized status. It argues that although much progress has been made with respect to gender equality in Georgia during the first decade of the twenty-first century, much is left to do. The issue of gender equality still needs to be successfully integrated into the state's policy agenda, especially in the political and economic policy of the government, allocation of government funds, labor market regulation, social policy, and health care. The obstacles for women's full participation in public life must also be addressed.
Ivan Szelenyi and Katarzyna Wilk
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Central and Eastern Europe saw an explosion of poverty and inequality after the fall of communism. But despite the extreme deterioration of the living conditions of large segments of the population ...
More
Central and Eastern Europe saw an explosion of poverty and inequality after the fall of communism. But despite the extreme deterioration of the living conditions of large segments of the population and the striking increases in inequality, popular response was surprisingly subdued. By 2000, the countries in Central and Eastern Europe had completely transformed into market economies and entered a period of rather steady economic growth. However, the apparent decline in poverty and inequality was accompanied by a rise in protest/mobilization that observers might have expected but did not see during the earlier period. This chapter asks: Why was public response to unpopular and painful policies at the beginning of the twenty-first century so different from that during the first transitional crisis? Why, in effect, did the population mobilize against the second round of reforms and remain quiescent during the first? It provides a brief narrative of popular mobilization against reform of the great distributive systems with two “case studies” of the history of successful resistance against the health-care reform in Hungary and Poland. It considers possible reasons for the depth and violence of recent popular protest movements and concludes by anticipating the impact of the global fiscal crisis on the region.Less
Central and Eastern Europe saw an explosion of poverty and inequality after the fall of communism. But despite the extreme deterioration of the living conditions of large segments of the population and the striking increases in inequality, popular response was surprisingly subdued. By 2000, the countries in Central and Eastern Europe had completely transformed into market economies and entered a period of rather steady economic growth. However, the apparent decline in poverty and inequality was accompanied by a rise in protest/mobilization that observers might have expected but did not see during the earlier period. This chapter asks: Why was public response to unpopular and painful policies at the beginning of the twenty-first century so different from that during the first transitional crisis? Why, in effect, did the population mobilize against the second round of reforms and remain quiescent during the first? It provides a brief narrative of popular mobilization against reform of the great distributive systems with two “case studies” of the history of successful resistance against the health-care reform in Hungary and Poland. It considers possible reasons for the depth and violence of recent popular protest movements and concludes by anticipating the impact of the global fiscal crisis on the region.
Alena V. Ledeneva
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724262
- eISBN:
- 9780814724255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter focuses on the corruption “paradigm” predominant in the literature on postcommunism since the mid-1990s. The paradigm is the result of a process through which international organizations ...
More
This chapter focuses on the corruption “paradigm” predominant in the literature on postcommunism since the mid-1990s. The paradigm is the result of a process through which international organizations specified expectations of governing standards and fostered and assessed their achievement. In order to evaluate the suitability of the corruption paradigm to the postcommunist context, the chapter first looks at its three core assumptions: (1) corruption can be defined; (2) once defined it can be measured; and (3) measurement can in turn lead to policy that eliminates corrupt practices. It then examines the assumptions of the prevalent corruption paradigm in general and considers how the postcommunist experience modifies or reinforces the paradigm. Finally, it offers a complementary perspective that enables a more precise conceptualization of postcommunist corruption. It argues that the global corruption paradigm that emerged in the 1990s must be disaggregated in order to accommodate the reality of informal practices and to overcome the fundamental mismatch between the global framing of corruption and the postcommunist experience.Less
This chapter focuses on the corruption “paradigm” predominant in the literature on postcommunism since the mid-1990s. The paradigm is the result of a process through which international organizations specified expectations of governing standards and fostered and assessed their achievement. In order to evaluate the suitability of the corruption paradigm to the postcommunist context, the chapter first looks at its three core assumptions: (1) corruption can be defined; (2) once defined it can be measured; and (3) measurement can in turn lead to policy that eliminates corrupt practices. It then examines the assumptions of the prevalent corruption paradigm in general and considers how the postcommunist experience modifies or reinforces the paradigm. Finally, it offers a complementary perspective that enables a more precise conceptualization of postcommunist corruption. It argues that the global corruption paradigm that emerged in the 1990s must be disaggregated in order to accommodate the reality of informal practices and to overcome the fundamental mismatch between the global framing of corruption and the postcommunist experience.
