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Democratization Processes in East Central Europe: A Theoretical Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Grzegorz Ekiert
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This article explores various dimensions of the issue of transition to democracy in East Central Europe, focusing on the question of how past experiences shape the process of political change and on the limits of democratization in the region. The first part reviews scholarly debates on the relationship between the political crisis and processes of democratization in the region, arguing that new analytical categories are needed to account for different dimensions of the current transition process. The second part proposes a new framework for analysing changing relations between the party–state and society across time and in different state-socialist societies. The third part examines some recent political developments in countries of the region in order to identify those factors that may contribute to or impede a possibility of the transition to democracy in these countries. It concludes that in all East Central European countries the rapid collapse of party–states and the multidimensional social, political and economic crisis has initiated a parallel process of diminution of power of both the state and civil society, which may significantly endanger the transition to a democratic political order.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , July 1991 , pp. 285 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 In addressing the issue of democratization, however, I do not speculate about the possible future shape of post-communist societies, agreeing with Comisso that the ‘basic task of our field is not so much… to predict what socialist societies may be in transition to but… to illuminate some of the fundamental relationships among political, economic, and social variables that are vital to an understanding of all contemporary states and the emerging international order’ (Comisso, E., ‘Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? Analyzing the Politics of Socialism in the 1990s’ (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, 1989, p. 2).Google Scholar

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33 Cox, A., ‘Corporatism as Reductionism: The Analytic Limits of the Corporatist Thesis’, Government and Opposition, 16 (1981), 78–96, p. 85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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39 Despite indications to the contrary, Hungary's complicated electoral system produced a clear result. The Democratic Forum won 165 seats out of 386 and together with the Smallholders (43 seats) and the Christian Democrats (21 seats) has a safe majority in the Parliament.

40 As Kis points out in his analysis of Hungarian reform at the end of the 1980s, ‘the leadership and its apparatuses have never been so indecisive as to which elements of the regime are to be treated as untouchable and which permanent and which can be open to transformation’ (Kis, , ‘Turning Point in Hungary’, p. 238Google Scholar). Moreover, already at the beginning of the 1980s political initiative had shifted outside the space controlled by the regime. Urban, an official spokesman for the Polish regime, openly acknowledged this change in his confidential letter to the first secretary of the party written in 1981. In this letter he contended that ‘we are facing disaster, since in my opinion the time has already passed when PZPR could effect a renewal, remodel the system of government, advance a programme, and obtain the acceptance and support of society’ (Urban, J., ‘Letter to the First Secretary’, Uncaptive Minds, 1, no. 4(1988), 3).Google Scholar

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42 Feher and Heller clearly represent this point of view when they argue in their recent book that ‘contemporary Soviet totalitarianism, which had left its revolutionary birth-pangs behind, is an entirely conservative society, a legitimized and at least for the time being, a well-functioning one. Unfortunately, all hopes of a near collapse of this social structure seem as misguided as hopes for its eventual thoroughgoing social reform. This does not, of course, exclude changes within the framework of the existing structures, for no society can be completely static’ (Feher, F. and Heller, A., Eastern Left, Western Left: Totalitarianism, Freedom and Democracy (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1987), p. 250Google Scholar; see also Feher, F., ‘Inherent Weakness and Unfounded Optimism’, Society, 25, no. 4 (1988), 19–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Heller, A., ‘Can Communist Regimes Be Reformed?’, Society, 25, no. 4 (1988), 22–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar). A similar idea can be found in Garton Ash's metaphor of the ‘Ottomanization of the Soviet empire’. Garton Ash not only emphasizes the continued existence of geopolitical obstacles to democratization, but also stresses the fact that ‘socialism has created in all the East European states an array of domestic barriers against the transformation to liberal democracy… These barriers lie not only in the system of politbureaucratic dictatorship… and not merely in the character of interests of the nomenclature ruling class, but also in the interests, attitudes, and fears of many of the ruled’ (Ash, T. Garton, ‘Reform or Revolution?’, New York Review of Books, 35, no. 16 (1988), 47–56, p. 56).Google Scholar

43 This point of view is represented by Chirot, who, in projecting a likely scenario of Romanian developments for the whole region, predicts the formation of a new sort of fascism in a form of xenophobic, anti-rational nationalism (Chirot, D., ‘Ideology and Legitimacy in Eastern Europe’, States and Social Structures Newsletter, 4 (1987), 1–4Google Scholar). Such a possibility seems, however, rather unlikely unless there is a sufficient external threat to mobilize nationalistic fervour.

44 Arato, A. and Cohen, J., ‘Social Movements, Civil Society, and the Problems of Sovereignty’, Praxis international, 4 (1984), 266–83Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that most recent developments in the region and the abrupt collapse of one-party regimes caught the majority of experts by surprise.

45 The state–civil society distinction was initially employed to analyse the phenomenon of the Polish self-limiting revolution (see Arato, A., ‘Civil Society against the State: Poland 1980–81, Telos, 47 (1981), 23–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Arato, A., ‘Empire vs Civil Society: Poland 1981–82’, Telos, 50 (1981/1982), 19–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Arato, and Cohen, , ‘Social Movements, Civil Society, and the Problem of Sovereignty’Google Scholar; Pelczynski, Z. A., ‘Solidarity and “The Rebirth of Civil Society”’, in Keane, J., ed., Civil Society and the State (London: Verso, 1988), pp. 361–81Google Scholar)) and the new opposition movements in East Central Europe (see Rupnik, J., ‘Dissent in Poland, 1968–78: The End of Revisionism and the Rebirth of the Civil Society’, in Tokes, R. L., ed., Opposition in Eastern Europe (Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), pp. 60–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Szelenyi, I., ‘Socialist Opposition in Eastern Europe: Dilemmas and Perspectives’Google Scholar, in Tokes, , Opposition in Eastern EuropeGoogle Scholar; Havel, V. et al. , The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the State in Central-Eastern Europe (Armonk, NJ: Sharpe, 1985)Google Scholar; Skilling, H. G., Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988)Google Scholar; and Judt, T. R., ‘The Dilemmas of Dissidence: The Politics of Opposition in East-Central Europe’, East European Politics and Societies, 2 (1988), 185–241CrossRefGoogle Scholar)). But more recently the notion has been extended to all aspects of independent or semi-independent social life under state-socialist regimes and has even been applied to some aspects of the reform in the Soviet Union (see Scanlan, J. P., ‘Reforms and Civil Society in the USSR’, Problems of Communism, 37, no. 2 (1988), 41–7Google Scholar; Starr, F. S., ‘Soviet Union: A Civil Society’, Foreign Policy, 70 (1988), 26–41).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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47 The conceptual difficulties generated by this classical distinction are aptly analysed by Keane, in Civil Society and the State, pp. 1–33.Google Scholar

48 Ash, T. Garton, ‘The Opposition’, New York Review of Books, 35, no. 15 (1988), 3–6, p. 3.Google Scholar

49 For the lack of a better term I borrowed this notion from the Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suares, who in his Tractatus de legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612)Google Scholar points out that ‘human society is twofold: imperfect, or domestic; and perfect, or political’ (cited in Curtis, M., ed., The Great Political Theories (New York: Avon Books, 1961), p. 288).Google Scholar

50 I owe the idea of the importance of the concept of political society in Tocqueville and its possible application to state-socialist regimes to Jeff Weintraub. See Weintraub, J., ‘Tocqueville's Conception of Political Society’ (unpublished manuscript, 1986).Google Scholar

51 Forment, C. A., ‘Socio-Historical Models of Spanish American Democratization: A Review and a Reformulation’ (Harvard University, CROPSO Working Paper Series, No. 0015, 1988), p. 21.Google Scholar

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54 See Hammond, T. T., ed., The Anatomy of Communist Takeovers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975)Google Scholar and Szajkowski, B., The Establishment of Marxist Regimes (London: Butter-worth Scientific, 1982).Google Scholar This process of destruction was described by the infamous Hungarian leader Rakosi as ‘salami tactics’. In Hungary the Communist party first entered into a coalition with the Smallholders, Peasants and Social Democratic parties in order to annihilate the conservatives. It then crushed the Smallholders party with the help of the remaining two parties. In the next step the Communists suborned the Peasants party and absorbed the Social Democrats, annihilating those parties' leadership. In the course of this manœuvering, politicians were bribed, intimidated, imprisoned, driven into exile or killed.

55 Kovacs and Orkeny estimate that Poland lost 77 per cent of her professionals, businessmen and civil servants during the war. By comparison in Hungary losses in these groups were only about 10 per cent, and the situation was similar in other countries (Kovacs, M. M. and Orkeny, A., ‘Promoted Cadres and Professionals in Post-War Hungary’, in Andorka, R. and Bertalan, L., eds, Economy and Society in Hungary (Budapest: Hungarian Sociological Association, 1986), pp. 139–53Google Scholar). See also Gella, A., Development of Class Structure in Eastern Europe: Poland and Her Southern Neighbors (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 167–202.Google Scholar

56 This implicit social pact between the party-state and society has sometimes been called a ‘new social contract’ (see Liehm, A. J., ‘The Intellectuals on the New Social Contract’, Telos, 23 (1975), 156–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Liehm, A. J., ‘The New Social Contract and the Parallel Polity’, in Curry, J. L., ed., Dissent in Eastern Europe (New York: Praeger, 1983), pp. 173–82).Google Scholar However, the idea of a social contract may be highly misleading in the context of state-socialist regimes and this relationship is better described, following Pakulski, as an example of relations based on ‘conditional tolerance’ (Pakulski, J., ‘Legitimacy and Mass Compliance: Reflections on Max Weber and Soviet-Type Societies’, British Journal of Political Science, 16 (1986), 35–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Ekiert, G., ‘Conditions of Political Obedience and Stability in State-Socialist Societies: The Inapplicability of Weber's Concept of Legitimacy’ (Harvard University, CROPSO Working Paper Series, No. 0005, 1987)).Google Scholar

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62 G. Konrad and I. Szelenyi interpreted this development as leading to the formation of a new dominant class in which the party bureaucrats and intellectuals were united as a more inclusive ruling elite (Konrad, G. and Szelenyi, I., The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power (Brighton, Sussex: Harvester, 1979).Google Scholar For a critique of their conclusion see Frentzel-Zagorska, J. and Zagorski, K., ‘East European Intellectuals on the Road of Dissent: The Old Prophecy of a New Class Re-examined’, Politics and Society, 17 (1989), 89–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Haraszti, M., The Velvet Prison: Artists under State Socialism (New York: Basic Books, 1987).Google Scholar

63 Jowitt, , ‘Soviet Neotraditionalism’.Google Scholar

64 Szelenyi, I., Socialist Entrepreneurs: Embourgeoisement in Rural Hungary (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), p. 5.Google Scholar

65 In a recent article J. Wasilewski analyses the impact of the social mobility of the peasant class in Poland after the war. He argues that the peasants were not only a majority of the population before the war but also the only social stratum which survived the war relatively intact and supplied the human material for the processes of industrialization, urbanization and the formation of new elites. As a result there was a significant ‘ruralization’ of cities, culture and political life. Thus social norms and values, styles of life and aspirations, cultural patterns and practices rooted in the Polish peasant tradition dominated the urban culture destroyed by the war and penetrated institutions of the party-state (Wasilewski, J., ‘Spoleczeństwo polskie, społeczeristwo chłopskie’, Studia Socjologiczne, 3 (1986), 39–56).Google Scholar

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67 For more detailed analysis of this process see Scruton, R., ‘The New Right in Central Europe I: Czechoslovakia’, Political Studies, 36 (1988), 449–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scruton, R., ‘The New Right in Central Europe II: Poland and Hungary’, Political Studies, 36 (1988), 638–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kubik, J., ‘John Paul II's First Visit to Poland and the Collapse of the Official Marxist-Leninist Discourse’ (Harvard University, CROPSO Working Paper Series, No. 0025, 1989)Google Scholar; Judt, , ‘The Dilemmas of Dissidence’.Google Scholar

68 See Hankiss, , ‘The “Second Society”’, p. 29.Google Scholar

69 See, for example, Ramet, P., ‘Religious Ferment in Eastern Europe’, Survey, 28 (1984), 87–117Google Scholar; Cordell, K., ‘The Role of the Evangelical Church in the GDR’, Government and Opposition, 25 (1990), 48–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and also the interview with father Vaclav Maly (‘Not a Prophet but an Optimist’, Uncaptive Minds, 1, no. 4 (1988), 37–41).Google Scholar

70 See Rykowski, Z. and Wertenstein-Żuławski, J., eds, Wybrane zagadnienia spontanicznej kultury młodzieżowej w Polsce (Warsaw, 1986)Google Scholar; Bozoki, A., ‘Critical Movements and Ideologies in Hungary’, Sudosteuropa, 37 (1988), 377–87Google Scholar; Ryback, T. W., Rock around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

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72 The fusion of the new political discourse with the traditional identities and historical experiences of these nations is likely to produce different results. Szelenyi compares Polish and Hungarian roads to civil society, arguing that the self-organization of society in Hungary finds its expression in the economy while in Poland this self-organization by-passes the economy and is expressed within the polity (see Szelenyi, ‘Eastern Europe in an Epoch of Transition’).

73 See Bugajski, J., Czechoslovakia: Charter 77's Decade of Dissent (Washington, DC: Praeger with the Center for Strategic Studies, 1987)Google Scholar and Stalling, , Samizdat and an Independent Society, pp. 43–157.Google Scholar

74 For a brief overview of independent opposition movements in Eastern Europe see Skilling, , Samizdat and Independent Society, pp. 157–239Google Scholar and Pehe, J., ‘Annotated Survey of Independent Movements in Eastern Europe’, Radio Free Europe, Background Report/100, Munich, 13 06 1989.Google Scholar

75 See Rostowski, J., ‘The Decay of Socialism and the Growth of Private Enterprise in Poland’, Soviet Studies, 41 (1989), 194–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bloch, A., ‘Entrepreneurialism in Poland and Hungary’, Telos, 79 (1989), 95–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Szelenyi argues that the opening of the second economy was a strategy pursued by the Hungarian regime over the last ten years. Although quite successful as a strategy, it was not able to solve the crisis of a centrally planned economy (see I. Szelenyi, ‘Eastern Europe in an Epoch of Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?’, in Nee, and Stark, , Remaking the Economic institutions of Socialism, pp. 208–33).Google Scholar

77 See, for example, Szelenyi, I., ‘Social Inequalities under State Socialist Redistributive Economies’, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 19 (1978), 61–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for a comprehensive analysis of social inequalities under state-socialism see Kende, P. and Strmiska, Z., eds, Equality and Inequality in Eastern Europe (Leamington Spa: Berg, 1987).Google Scholar

78 Szelenyi, I. and Manchin, R., ‘Social Policy Under State Socialism: Market Redistribution and Social Inequalities in East European Socialist Societies’, in Rein, M., Esping-Andersen, G. and Rainwater, L., eds, Stagnation and Renewal in Social Policy (Armonk, NJ: Sharpe, 1987), pp. 102–39, at p. 102.Google Scholar

79 Dye and Zeigler convincingly argue this point through the comparative study of inequality. They contend that there is ‘no discernible relationship between socialism and equality. Rather, inequality is inextricably linked to low levels of economic development’ (Dye, T. R. and Zeigler, H., ‘Socialism and Equality in Cross-National Perspective’, PS: Political Science and Politics, 21 (1988), 45–57, p. 54).Google Scholar

80 See ‘Jaka koniunktura – takie bezrobocie’, Gazeta Wyborcza, 7–8 04 1990Google Scholar; see also the interview with Prof. Tymowski, Andrzej, ‘Jutro bçdzie za póżno’, Trybuna, 50, 10 04 1990.Google Scholar

81 See Bugajski, J., ‘Poland's Anti-Communist Manifesto’, Orbis, 34 (1990), 109–21Google Scholar; Kornai, J., The Road to a Free Economy (New York: Norton, 1990)Google Scholar; Wolnicki, M., ‘Self-Government and Ownership in Poland’, Telos, 80 (1989), 63–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82 Szelenyi, , ‘Eastern Europe in the Epoch of Transition’, p. 208.Google Scholar

83 Szelenyi and Manchin make the point that ‘the expansion of market forces and the reemergence of a market-indexed system of inequalities has created such a complex system of social conflicts that economic reform will be able to continue only if it discovers how to counteract the inefficiencies and inequalities created by the market.’ They persuasively claim that ‘the unity of social and economic reform or no reform at all – these are the real alternatives facing Eastern Europe’ (Szelenyi and Manchin, ‘Social Policy under State Socialism’, p. 136).

84 By supporting and promoting private ownership, property rights and free exchange, neo-liberal and neo-conservative groups within political society desire to create a new social force which, as classical liberalism would have it, might serve as the foundation for a free political system. This potential alliance was designed to form an irresistible, democratic political force confronting the party–state and forcing political concessions. T. Syryjczyk, the new Polish Minister of Industry, stressed this point of view in arguing that ‘the only guarantee of democracy is a middle class that prizes the notions of contract and property’ (Applebaum, A., ‘Polish Government appointees stress pragmatism, steer clear of ideology’, Boston Globe, 10 09 1989).Google Scholar

85 The state, by relaxing control over some dimensions of economic life and thus accommodating private interests and individualistic acquisitive drives in the economic sphere, hoped to protect its political domination. It sought to channel people's attention into the accumulation of goods and the struggle for economic survival and success. Such a policy could create an alliance for what Ash ironically calls ‘a suitably Central European outcome of Socialism’ – ‘Capitalists and Communists, shoulder to shoulder against the proletariat’ (Ash, , ‘Reform or Revolution?’ p. 56Google Scholar). But, as Szelenyi and Manchin point out, it may also result in an alliance between anti-reformist groups within the state and party apparatus and pauperized sectors of domestic society, an outcome which could threaten any economic and political reforms (see Szelenyi, and Manchin, , ‘Social Policy under State Socialism’).Google Scholar

86 In his study dealing with transitions to democracy in Europe and Latin America, Adam Przeworski concludes that ‘we cannot avoid the possibility that a transition to democracy can be made only at the cost of leaving economic relations intact, not only the structure of production but even the distribution of income’ (Przeworski, A., ‘Some Problems in the Study of the Transition to Democracy’Google Scholar, in O'Donnell, , Schmitter, and Whitehead, , eds, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, pp. 47–64, at p. 63Google Scholar). I would suggest, however, that in Eastern Europe a fundamental reform both of allocation mechanisms and the structure of ownership constitutes a pivotal element in the transition from state-socialist regimes. The fusion of the state and the economy in state-socialism forces a thorough remaking of economic institutions. And while the new economies rising on the rubble of the state-owned and run economic system will diner in many respects, there will certainly not be a painless road to a market system.

87 Morawska, E., ‘On Barriers to Pluralism in Pluralist Poland’, Slavic Review, 47 (1988), 627–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

88 See, for example, Adamski, W., Bielecki, I., Jasiewicz, K., Kolarska, L. and Rychard, A., ‘Konflik-torodne interesy i wartości a szanse zmian systemowych’, Studia Socjologiczne, 2 (1987), 101–17Google Scholar; Smolar, A., ‘Perspektywy Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej’, Aneks, 50 (1988), 27–55Google Scholar; McGregor, J. P., ‘Economic Reform and Polish Public Opinion’, Soviet Studies, 41 (1989), 215–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Curry, J. L., ‘Psychological Barriers to Reform in Poland’, East European Politics and Societies, 2 (1988), 484–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bauman, Z., ‘Poland: On its Own’, Telos, 79 (1989), 47–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

89 Comisso, E., ‘Market Failures and Market Socialism: Economic Problems of the Transition’, East European Politics and Societies, 2 (1988), 433–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

90 This fragmentation of political forces was clearly reflected in elections held in all countries in 1990. Local elections in Poland in May 1990, for example, were contested by 240 organizations, including eighty political parties forming forty different coalitions. In Czechoslovakia, where thirty-seven political parties exist, the elections were contested by twenty-two parties, movements and coalitions. In Hungary the complex electoral procedure determined that among approximately fifty political parties and movements only the six biggest parties were able to contest the second round of elections. Although in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania front-like coalitions (Citizens' Committees, Civic Forum, National Salvation Front), won the elections this fact does not secure political stability. These groups represent a loose association of political actors with different political orientations and sooner or later will have to decide either to transform themselves into a hegemonic political party or to split along major political lines.

91 See, for example, Montias, J. M., ‘Observations on Strikes, Riots and Other Disturbances’, in Triska, J. F. and Gati, C., eds, Blue-Collar Workers in Eastern Europe (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981), pp. 173–87Google Scholar; Pravda, A., ‘Industrial Workers: Patterns of Dissent, Opposition and Accommodation’, in Tokes, R., ed., Opposition in Eastern Europe (London: Macmillan, 1979), pp. 209–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

92 Poland's economic policies represent the most radical example of transition to a free market economy. The Solidarity-led government, confronted with hyperinflation and a virtual breakdown of the economy, opted for a harsh stabilization programme and a rapid restoration of the market and even rejected the idea of a mixed economy. As J. Beksiak, an economic adviser to Solidarity, put it, ‘a socialist economy does not have any prospects for reform… [and] people have to realize this once and for all’ (Beksiak, J., ‘Economic Crisis, Economic Reform’, Uncaptive Minds, 2, no. 4 (1989), 14–16, p. 14).Google Scholar