Politics
rita2013
comm_and_post_comm.ppt
Comparative Politics:
Domestic Responses to Global Challenges, Seventh Edition
by Charles Hauss
Chapter 8:
Current and Former Communist Regimes
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Chapter Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
• identify the basic characteristics of Marxist-Leninist states.
• describe the creation and evolution of Marxist nation-states.
• explain briefly the socialist critique of capitalism.
• explain briefly the Marxist critique of liberal democracy.
• identify the primary factors that brought an end to most Marxist states.
• identify the reforms initiated by former President Gorbachev and explain why they failed to save the Soviet Union.
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The basics
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The basics
Crisis? What Crisis?
- In former communist states, few people want to return to communist rule
- People miss the security of the party
- Some former communist states joined EU and NATO; turning economic corner
- Few protest new regimes where democracy has taken root
- Poverty and ethnic conflict in some states
- Eurasian countries are in midst of transition for which there is no real precedent
Thinking about the Current and Former Communist Regimes
- Weaknesses of communist regimes appeared by 1980s
- States relaxed repressive policies
- Factional disputes divided Chinese rulers
- Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of USSR
Thinking about the Current and Former Communist Regimes
- Former communist states declared themselves democracies
- Transitions very difficult
- Countries that have joined EU and NATO have made progress politically and economically
- China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba remain communist regimes
Thinking about Communism
- Marxist-Leninist regimes:
- Former USSR in 1917
- Eastern Europe—“Satellite States” after WWII
- Asia—China 1949
- Cuba 1959
- Several Marxist-like regimes in North Africa, Arabia, and South America
Thinking about Communism
- The Leninist state
- Communist Party controlled all political life
- Democratic centralism was regime paradigm
- Until 1950s, USSR controlled “Communist World”
- China and USSR split in late ‘50s offered an alternative model
Thinking about Communism
- Command economies
- Government owned and controlled nearly all industrial and retail activity
- State planning committees determined output and consumption goals
- Benefits of command economies began diminishing in late ‘80s, planning and coercion could not stimulate innovation
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Table 8.1
Thinking about Communism
- Key questions
- What contemporary and historical, domestic and international forces shaped their development?
- How are decisions made in these countries?
- What role do average citizens play in policy making?
- What are the public policies?
- How is political life affected by global forces?
- How could regimes that seemed so strong collapse so quickly?
- What have some communist systems survived? What are the political implications of economic reform in countries that have kept communism and in those that have abandoned it?
- Why are they all facing much more serious domestic and global challenges than any of the countries covered in Part 2?
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
- Socialism
- Capitalism leads to inequality
- Equality of outcome necessary
- Public ownership of means of production
- Freedoms are vital, but democracy should be expanded
- Capitalism does not allow humans to realize their potential
- Public ownership would improve human relations
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
- Marxism
- Dialectic—evolution of society when basic values are challenged
- Historical materialism—distribution of economic power
- Contradictions—people will not accept being exploited and will revolt
- Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat
- Alienation of the proletariat
- Revolution—but not long because the proletariat overwhelms the capitalists
- Dictatorship of the proletariat
- Communism
Figure 8.1: Base, Superstructure, and Contradictions, According to Marx
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Figure 8.1
Figure 8.2: The Role of Money in Feudalism and Capitalism
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Figure 8.1
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
- Marxism-Leninism
- Democratic centralism
- Revolutions did not occur in advanced industrialized societies
- Expansion
- Third International (Comintern)
- Eastern Europe
- Asia
- Stalinism—totalitarianism
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Table 8.2
Socialism, Marxism, Leninism
- De-Stalinization
- Khrushchev’s “secret speech” (1956)
- Slight loosening of intellectual controls
- Khrushchev replaced by a series of hardline leaders who resisted change after Cuban Missile Crisis
- Brezhnev era of more control and economic stagnation
- No longer a unified communist movement
- Need to change grew at a time leaders were trying to prevent change
The Marxist-Leninist State
- The party state
- Secretariat
- Politburo and General Secretary
- Nomenklatura
- All groups were communist groups
- Communism was about the party leaders, not Marx’s intention
- Control not as absolute in Eastern Europe
The Marxist-Leninist State
- The party state in China
- Mao objected to de-Stalinization
- Cultural revolution 1965
- After Mao’s death in 1976, moderates led economic change but not political
The Marxist-Leninist State
- The graying of communism: “thumbs” and “fingers”
- Leaders found it difficult to continue to control societies, especially with media, Western tourists, and a better educated public
- “Lack of fingers” resulted in a poor standard of living
- Even military lagged
- Communist countries in an even deeper economic bind with a globalizing economy
The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy
Reform: Too Little, Too Late
- Gorbachev reforms to “revitalize” communism
- Glasnost: Openness in a political system
- Democratization of the party
- Perestroika: Economic restructuring
- New thinking in foreign policy
- Change and resistance in Eastern Europe: cultural change occurred more rapidly
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Table 8.3
The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy
1989: The Year That Changed the World
- Solidarity in Poland
- Opening the Iron Curtain in Hungary
- Emigration and protest in East Germany, fall of Berlin Wall in 1989
- Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution”
- Violent revolution in Romania
- Massive protest in Tiananmen Square
- 1991—fall of communism in former USSR, Boris Yeltsin
The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy
- The remnants of the communist world
- A few parties and governments are willing to continue to use force
- Countries too poor and too closed to outside influences
- Most had been outside Soviet Union’s sphere of influence for some time
Transitions
- Economies hit rock bottom and began to recover by the middle or late 1990’s
- Only a handful have made major progress toward democracy or capitalism
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Table 8.4
Transitions
- Relative Success: Eastern and Central Europe
- Hungary as an example:
- Relative ethnic homogeneity
- Economic progress with reform
- Communist leaders made common cause with opposition (pacting)
Transitions
- Troubled transitions: The former Soviet Union
- No real shift of power to new leaders
- Great problems with corruption
- Ethnic conflict
- The former Yugoslavia
- Russian war with rebels in Chechnya
Transitions
What's Left of Marxism?
- North Korea and Cuba have maintained Marxist-Leninist systems
- Countries are among the poorest in the world
China and Vietnam have reformed economies
- Monopoly power of Communist Parties remains
- Countries are among the poorest in the world
Feedback
- Marxist-Leninist regimes controlled all media
- Authorities kept Western media out
- Loosening of controls in 1980s
- Russian state still controls the media, but the press is relatively open
- Radio, satellite television, cell phones, and the Internet have made controls much more difficult
Conclusion: The End of the Cold War important because
- Cold War determined the evolution of communist and non-communist states
- Communist past vital to understanding present of communist and former communist states today
