| 1. |
- Reitan, Therese C.
(författare)
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The operation failed, but the patient survived. Varying assessments of the Soviet Union's last anti-alcohol campaign
- 2001
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 34:2, s. 241-260
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From the mid 1980s mortality levels have fluctuated greatly in the former Soviet Union. After dropping substantially during the late 1980s, mortality rose to unprecedented levels during the early 1990s. The sharp fluctuations in mortality are commonly linked to variations in alcohol consumption in connection with the anti-alcohol campaign launched in 1985. This large-scale natural alcohol policy experiment has produced very mixed appraisal and this article provides a systematic review of the wide variety of judgments, focusing on goals, implementation, and effects on life expectancy, alcohol consumption, mortality, crime, etc. Deviant evaluations are in part ascribable to a general schism between narrowly focused epidemiological perspectives on public health interventions and broader social science approaches to political reform.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta
(författare)
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Old welfare state theories and new welfare regimes in Eastern Europe : Challenges and implications
- 2009
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 42:1, s. 23-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper reviews some theoretical and empirical literature written on welfare state development in post-communist Eastern Europe in the light of the theories and approaches that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The aim of this discussion is to critically reassess the old welfare state theories, definitions and approaches and their implications regarding the study of post-communist Eastern Europe. The paper ends with the conclusion that the exclusion of 'communist' countries for more than twenty years from welfare state theorising has created an empirical and theoretical gap. This creates fresh challenges for welfare state research and calls for a new paradigm. It is evident that the not so well explored Eastern European region with regards to social policy research suggests that it is necessary not only to test already existing welfare state theories, definitions, typologies and approaches on these countries, but also to advance them.
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| 4. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta
(författare)
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Reforming Family Policy in the Baltic States : The Views of the Elites
- 2006
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 39:1, s. 1-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to explore the various views of the social policy elites in the Baltic States concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. This study is based on semi-structured expert interviews from the three Baltic countries conducted in 2002. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the reasons behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Policies that seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality was more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. This study thus indicate how intimately the attitudes of top-level bureaucrats, policy-makers and researchers shape social policy.
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| 5. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta
(författare)
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Welfare reforms and socio-economic trends in the 10 new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe
- 2011
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 44:3, s. 211-219
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper reviews recent socio-economic changes in the 10 new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe and the earlier and latest debates on the emergence of the post-communist welfare state regime. It asks two questions: are the new EU member states more similar to each other in their social problems encountered than to the rest of the EU world? Do they exhibit enough common socio-economic and institutional features to group them into the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime that deviates from any well-known welfare state typology? The findings of this paper indicate that despite some slight variation within, the new EU countries exhibit lower indicators compared to the EU-15 as it comes to the minimum wage and social protection expenditure. The degree of material deprivation and the shadow economy is on average also higher if compared to the EU-15 or the EU-27. However, then it comes to at-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers or Gini index, some Eastern European outliers especially the Check Republic, but also Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary perform the same or even better than the old capitalist democracies. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, however, show many similarities in their social indicators and performances and this group of countries never perform better than the EU-15 or the EU-27 averages. Nevertheless, the literature reviews on welfare state development in the CEE region reveal a number of important institutional features in support of identifying the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime. Most resilient of it are: an insurance-based programs that played a major part in the social protection system; high take-up of social security; relatively low social security benefits; increasing signs of liberalization of social policy; and the experience of the Soviet/Communist type of welfare state, which implies still deeply embedded signs of solidarity and universalism.
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| 6. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr., et al.
(författare)
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Escaping the Long Shadow of Homo Sovieticus : Reassessing Stalin’s Popularity and Communist Legacies in Post-Soviet Russia
- 2023
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; , s. 1-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is often asserted that the values and attitudes of Homo Sovieticus, marked in the rising “popularity” of Stalin, live on in contemporary Russia, acting as a negative factor in social and political development. This article critiques the argument that attitudes to Stalin reflect unreformed Soviet values and explain Russia’s authoritarian regression and failed modernization. Our critique of this legacy argument has three parts. First, after examining the problematic elements of the Levada Center approach, we offer alternative explanations for understanding quantitative data on Stalin and the repressions. Second, we examine interview data showing that, for those with a pro-Stalin position, “defending Stalin” is only a small part of a broader worldview that is not obviously part of a “Soviet legacy.” Third, we consider survey data from the trudnaia-pamiat’ project and find common reluctance to discuss much of the Stalinist past, which we argue represents an agonistic stance. Thus, we interpret attitudes to Stalin within a broader context of complex social and cultural transformation where the anomie of the 1990s has been replaced with dynamics toward a more positive identity construct. On the one hand, the antagonistic mode of memory is visible in statist and patriotic discourses, which do not seriously revolve around Stalin but do resist strong criticism of him. On the other hand, we find many more in Russia avoid the Stalin question and adopt an agonistic mode, avoiding conflict through a “de- politicized” version of history.
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| 7. |
- Gel'man, Vladimir, et al.
(författare)
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The Invention of Legacy : Strategic Uses of a "Good Soviet Union" in Elite Policy Preferences and Filmmaking in Russia
- 2024
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 57:1, s. 130-153
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- According to elite and mass surveys, the late-Soviet sociopolitical and economic order was largely perceived as the only viable alternative to domestic political and economic status quo in Russia before 2022. Political elites invested significant efforts and funds into deliberative promotion of a complex of ideational legacies through different tools (including cinematography). This complex, labeled a "Good Soviet Union," is an imagined sociopolitical and economic order, which somehow resembles that of the late-Soviet past, while lacking its inherent flaws. Elements of the Soviet legacy were selectively chosen for the sake of preservation of the politico-economic status quo. They include the hierarchical mechanism of governance, low circulation of elites and their privileged status, state control over media, and repressions toward organized dissent. Meanwhile, other elements of the late-Soviet past, such as relatively low inequality and certain state social guarantees, have been discarded. A "Good Soviet Union" model includes not only market economy and no shortages of goods and services, but also a lack of institutional constraints on rent-seeking and legalization of wealth and status of elites. In this article, we consider a "Good Soviet Union" as a socially constructed legacy of the past and focus on mechanisms of translation of this legacy into Russia's current agenda through the use of modern Russian cinematography and analysis of policy preferences on the part of political elites. We further consider its effects on politics and policy-making, as well as its limitations and constraints. Some implications of the social construction of Soviet legacies are discussed in the conclusion.
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| 8. |
- Gherghina, Sergiu, et al.
(författare)
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Introduction to the Special Issue on Political Participation in Post-Communist Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 2023
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 56:4, s. 1-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The COVID-19 pandemic altered the functioning of societies and people’s behavior in many areas of daily life. Studies of political participation during the pandemic do not constitute an extensive body of research, focusing mainly on Western European countries. Under these circumstances, we know very little about political participation in post-communist countries during the pandemic. This special issue aims to understand the dynamics of political participation in post-communist Europe through both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It proposes several innovative concepts and analytical frames that can be used to understand who participated, why, and with what consequences. This topic has often been surrounded by discussions referring to empirical matters much more than around general arguments and theoretical explanatory models. One of the special issue’s aims is to enrich the theoretical debate about political participation in new democracies and transition countries during the pandemic.
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| 9. |
- Polanska Vergara, Dominika, 1980-
(författare)
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Decline and revitalization in post-communist urban context : a case of the Polish city of Gdansk
- 2008
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - California : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 41:3, s. 359-374
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines how different social, economic, historical and physical conditions coincide in the formation of space and processes of decline in the period of transformation in Poland. The focus lies on a specific residential area in the centre of the Polish city of Gdansk and the question why no improvements have been done in this particular area to stop its successive decline. It is among other things argued that clear urban policy together with improved urban planning and clear legislation on ownership are needed in order to improve conditions in this and other deprived areas of the city.
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| 10. |
- Smoczyński, Rafał, et al.
(författare)
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The Extended Family : Descendants of Nobility in Post-Communist Poland
- 2021
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Ingår i: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; 54:4, s. 157-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- After World War II, Polish nobility was commonly considered an obsolete social group because of the post-1945 confiscation of their properties and the decline of their legal and political privileges. From a formal point of view, the Polish nobility had ceased to exist. However, this group did not simply vanish. For this reason, we should not speak of the disintegration of the former noble milieu but rather its reorganization. To expand deliberation on these “reorganization strategies” with the use of appropriate sociological tools, this article analyzes major social actors in contemporary Poland who use their noble legacies in their collective identity-building practices.
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