chapter 8: current and former communist world
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 8:Chapter 8:Current and Current and
Former Former Communist Communist
WorldWorld
Thinking About Current and Former Communist Regimes
• The Impossible: Collapse of Communism• Some remain, but most with economic
reform• Little in common with the socialism Marx
and Engels predicted• Unlikely that these regimes will remain
Communist
Thinking about Communism• The Leninist State - Democratic Centralism• Command Economies• Key Questions
– What forces shaped the development of states and governments?
– How are decisions made?– What role do average citizens play in policy making?– What are the public policies?– How could apparently powerful regimes collapse?– What have some Communist systems survived?– What are the political implications of economic reforms
in Communist and former Communist countries?– Why are these countries facing challenges more serious
than industrialized democracies?
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
• Socialism– Public ownership of means of
production– Substantial material equality– Economic and political democracy
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
• Marxism– Evolution of society– Dialectics– Historical materialism– Revolution
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
• Marxism-Leninism – democratic centralism
• Stalinism - totalitarianism• Expansion
– Third International (Comintern)– Eastern Europe– Asia
• De-Stalinization
The Marxist-Leninist State• The Party State
• Secretariat• Politburo• General Secretary• Cult of Personality• Nomenklatura• Command economy
• The Graying of Communism
The Crisis of Communism:Suicide by Public Policy
• Reform: Too Little, Too Late• Glasnost• Democratization• Peristroika• Approach to the West
• 1989: The Year That Changed the World• The Remnants of the Communist World
Transitions
• Economic disasters• Relative successes: East and Central
Europe• Troubled transitions: The former Soviet
Union• Ethnic conflict• Reform: What's left of Marxism?
Feedback• Were never technologically equal to media in the
West• Party controlled media• Censorship• Western media kept out• Loosening of controls during Gorbachev years• Media is now open, contentious, and critical in
former Communist states• Cracks in the party’s armor against media in
current Communist regimes