While the decline of communism in the late twentieth century brought democracy, political freedom, and better economic prospects for many people, it also produced massive social dislocation and engendered social problems that were far less pronounced under the old regimes. The fall of state socialism led to enormously complex political, economic, social, and cultural transformations, and while political liberalization was a lofty goal, it was neither uniform in its effects nor unqualified in its benefits. Postcommunism from Within foregrounds the diversity of the historical experiences and current realities of people in the postcommunist region in examining how they are responding to these monumental changes at home. The original essays in this volume lay out a bold new approach to research on the postcommunist region, and to democratization studies more broadly, that focuses on the social and cultural microprocesses behind political and economic transformation. Thematic essays by eminent scholars of postcommunism from across the social sciences are supported by case studies to demonstrate the limitations of current democratization paradigms and suggest ways of building categories of research that more closely capture the role of vernacular knowledge in demanding, creating, and adapting to institutional change. A novel approach to understanding one of the greatest political and social transformations in recent history, Postcommunism from Within explores not just how citizens respond to political and economic restructuring engineered at the top but also how people enact their own visions of life, politics, and justice by responding to daily challenges.

A quarter of a century after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and from the vantage point of a post-Cold War, globalised, world, there is a need to address the relative neglect of postcommunism in analysis of postcolonial and neo-colonial configurations of power and influence. This book proposes new critical perspectives on several themes and concepts that have emerged within, or been propagated by, postcolonial studies. These themes include structures of exclusion/ inclusion; formations of nationalism, structures of othering, and representations of difference; forms and historical realisations of anti-colonial/anti-imperial struggle; the experience of trauma (involving issues of collective memory/amnesia and the re-writing of history); resistance as a complex of cultural practices; and concepts such as alterity, ambivalence, self-colonisation, dislocation, hegemonic discourse, minority, and subaltern cultures.? Taken together, this volume suggests that some of the methodological instruments of postcolonial criticism can be fruitfully applied to the study of postcommunist cultures and, conversely, that the experience of the Soviet brand of imperialist rule in the form of communism in East-Central Europe can function as an ideological moderator in Third-World oriented, Marxist-inspired, postcolonial discourses. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

Social Theory and Postcommunism undertakes a thorough studyof the implications of post-communism for sociological theory.Written by two leading social theorists, the book discusses thethesis that the fall of communism has decimated alternativeconceptions of social organizations other than capitalism. Analyzes the implications of the fall of communism on socialtheory Discusses alternative ideas of social organizations other thancapitalism, in the wake of the collapse of communism Covers state/civil society, globalization, the future of“modernity,” and post-socialism

Transformation is still the order of the day in the polities of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as they emerge from decades of communism and try to forge new identities, new economies, new societies. The Political Analysis of Postcommunism offers the perspectives of prominent political scientists, historians, sociologists, philosophers, and others, each writing on a particular aspect of the transformation of society from communist to postcommunist forms. Originally published, in English and Ukrainian, in 1995 in Kiev by the editors of the Ukrainian journal Political Thought, this volume is written by those who have themselves lived through the changes. Political scientists, sociologists, and others interested in the progress of postcommunist society in the independent, formerly communist nations of Eastern Europe and Central Asia will profit from reading these thought-provoking early insights into the world to come.

Prozorov offers a radical reinterpretation of contemporary Russian politics in terms of Agamben's philosophy. Reconstructing Agamben's conception of the end of history, that challenges the Hegelian thesis, Prozorov approaches post-communist Russia as a post-historical terrain, in which the teleological dimension of politics has been deactivated.

A post-communist condition has arisen from the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Empire: this book looks at how this condition has manifested itself globally in the production of post-communist film. It argues post-communism is a shared experience on a geopolitical level, unlimited by national state borders, and examines post-communist cross culturalism and global totalitarianism within film. The book examines different national cinemas and dissimilar cinematic modes - from Russian blockbuster cinema to Chinese independent cinema; from Serbian city films to revolutionary films of Mozambique - all formulated as within the postcommunist condition. It considers the postcommunist film in terms of transnational and World cinema. It covers a wide range of films from small and independent filmmaking to mainstream, popular cinema, and explains post-communist signifiers as manifested in visual culture both inside and outside former, and current, communist countries.

Why did the wave of democracy that swept the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe starting more than a decade ago develop in ways unexpected by observers who relied on existing theories of democracy? In Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy, four distinguished scholars conduct the first major assessment of democratization theory in light of the experience of postcommunist states. Richard Anderson, Steven Fish, Stephen Hanson, and Philip Roeder not only apply theory to practice, but using a wealth of empirical evidence, draw together the elements of existing theory into new syntheses. The authors each highlight a development in postcommunist societies that reveals an anomaly or lacuna in existing theory. They explain why authoritarian leaders abandon authoritarianism, why democratization sometimes reverses course, how subjects become citizens by beginning to take sides in politics, how rulers become politicians by beginning to seek popular support, and not least, how democracy becomes consolidated. Rather than converging on a single approach, each author shows how either a rationalist, institutionalist, discursive, or Weberian approach sheds light on this transformation. They conclude that the experience of postcommunist democracy demands a rethinking of existing theory. To that end, they offer rich new insights to scholars, advanced students, policymakers, and anyone interested in postcommunist states or in comparative democratization.

Domestic violence has emerged as a significant public policy issue of transnational character and mobilization in the postcommunist era in Europe and Eurasia, as global forces have interacted with the agendas of governments, local and international women's groups, and human rights activists. The result of extensive collaboration among scholars and activist-practitioners -- many from postcommunist countries -- this volume examines the development of state policies, changes in public perceptions, and the interaction of national and international politics.

The history of reform movements in postwar Eastern Europe is ultimately ironic, inasmuch as the reformers' successes and defeats alike served to discredit and demoralize the regimes they sought to redeem. The essays in this volume examine the historic and present-day role of the internal critics who, whatever their intentions, used Marxism as critique to demolish Marxism as ideocracy, but did not succeed in replacing it. Included here are essays by James P. Scanlan on the USSR, Ferenc Feher on Hungary, Leslie Holmes on the German Democratic Republic, Raymond Taras on Poland, James Satterwhite on Czechoslovakia, Vladimir Tismaneanu on Romania, Mark Baskin on Bulgaria, and Oskar Gruenwald on Yugoslavia. In concert, the contributors provide a comprehensive intellectual history and a veritable Who's Who of revisionist Marxism in Eastern Europe.

This book examines how Russia’s entrepreneurs operate in a business environment beset with risk and uncertainty. The challenges they may encounter include an unreliable judicial system, insecure property rights, arbitrary interference from officials, as well as corruption, harassment, suspicion and violence. Based on extensive original research, including fieldwork within three businesses, this book explores how entrepreneurs survive and some thrive. It focuses on the kind of obstacles they face from day to day, details their motivations, rationale and methods, and describes the actual relationship between ordinary entrepreneurs and the state, providing new insights into business-state relations.