Major Themes in Industrialised Societies: Post-communism and ‘Transition’
We shall discuss the collapse of communism and the so-called ‘transition’ to a liberal market society in postcommunist societies.
The Collapse of Communism
- Larry Ray and Richard Sakwa
a) The collapse of communism was quite dramatic between 1989 and 1991. The so-called ‘transition’ to a market economy has been quite controversial, and has two significant features:
i) post-socialist countries have had different experiences of the ‘transition’ – the Caucuses and Central Asia have had a different experience from the Eastern and Central European countries, and Russia stands out as quite distinct from its neighbouring countries; and
ii) despite the rhetoric of change, transition and transformation, most post-communist societies continue to have the soviet legacy in many areas, such as geo-politics, the economy and the public sector.
b) The collapse of communism has been described as ‘revolutions’, such as the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in Czechoslovakia, and post-socialist revolutions in Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia. However, the claim for a ‘revolution’ has to be challenged:
i) post-socialist countries heralded no utopian visions, unlike the French Revolution in 1789, the American War of Independence 1775-1783 and the Russian Bolsheviks Revolution in 1917. The post-socialist revolutions did not offer a new or different vision of citizenship, the state or the civil society;
ii) the post-socialist revolutions were anti-revolutions, in that they rejected the 1917 Communist revolutionary ideals;
iii) the post-socialist revolutions were imitations of Western values and ideals, such as liberal democracy and western capitalism; and
iv) the revolutions were widely initiated by the elite, the top hierarchy of the nomenklatura (the civil service, the public administration); the political protests were not really triggered by grassroots dissatisfaction and agitation (except in Poland).
Post-soviet ‘transition’
- Graham Smith and Leslie Holmes
There are three aspects of the ‘transition’: de-colonisation, democratisation and liberalisation
a) De-colonisation: from colonialism to post-colonialism
i), The collapse of communism fragmented the multi-ethnic Soviet empire into post-colonial sovereign states: the Baltic States, the Caucuses, Byelorussia, Ukraine, the Central Asian states and the Russian Federation – each with their own culture, politics and history.
ii) The process of state-building during the 1990s involved the preference of one ethnicity over others, resulting in ethnic tensions, conflicts and wars (e.g., Tajikistan and Chechnya); i.e., ethnic nationalism as part of the nation-hood, state-building.
iii) Ethnic Russians (i.e., Slavs) face discrimination in former-Soviet Union republic states through language policy barring Slavs and other non-titular and non-indigenous ethnic groups from public administration and politics unless they speak fluently the titular, indigenous language. The former colonial Slavic masters face other social, political and economic discrimination. Many Russian Slavs have ‘returned’ to Russia after many republic states become independent in 1990-91.
iv) During communism, the Soviet Union played down ethnic and religious differences, since the communist state was based on inclusion and the universal understanding of citizenship, the state and politics. (Though, in reality, there was a policy of russification in Central Asia and the Caucuses, favouring Russian culture, language and ethnicity.) The post-soviet space has become a public sphere based on social exclusion, ethnic loyalties and cultural divide (e.g., clan politics in Central Asia).
b) Democratisation: from totalitarianism to post-totalitarianism
i) The collapse of communism meant the break-up of the centralised regime with its coercive communist state into less totalitarian regimes.
ii) Some countries in Central and Eastern Europe developed political institutions and culture more associated with western democracy. However, many countries (e.g., Central Asia and Byelorussia) moved towards an authoritarian form of state governance.
iii) In many post-soviet states, there are problems of organised crime, violations of human rights, a lack of media freedom, a weak civil society (too few independent associations), and a bureaucratic state lacking the power to implement its own policies.
c) Economic liberalisation: from the command to a market economy
i) Liberalisation refers to the following: privatisation of nationalised enterprises, de-regulation of state-controlled prices, and open international trade and foreign investment. Eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic are more liberalised than other post-socialist countries, partly supported by funds from the European Union.
ii) However, there have been financial cut-backs in the public sector, which has resulted in social hardship for poor and vulnerable people (and the professions) and public unrest, street demonstrations, and sometimes the ‘colour’ revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
iii) There are two strategies of economic reforms: the ‘shock therapy’ of rapid economic reforms; and economic ‘gradualism’ and evolution. These strategies have different implications for the society, the polity and the economy.
iv) With the help of the international community (e.g., the US and the EU), some countries have managed to transform themselves into an economic liberal state better than others; even in Central Asia, there are different experiences with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan being more liberal than Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.