Classical images of state-socialism developed in contemporary
social sciences were founded on simple presuppositions.
State-socialist regimes were considered to be politically stable
due to their pervasive institutional and ideological control over
the everyday lives of their citizens, impervious to reform and
change, and representative of extreme political and economic
dependency. Despite their contrasting historical experiences, they
have been treated as basically identical in their institutional
design, social and economic structures, and policies. Grzegorz
Ekiert challenges this notion in a comparative analysis of the
major political crises in post-1945 East Central Europe: Hungary
(1956-63), Czechoslovakia (1968-76), and Poland (1980-89).
The author maintains that the nature and consequences of these
crises can better explain the distinctive experiences of East
Central European countries under communist rule than can the formal
characteristics of their political and economic systems or their
politically dependent status. He explores how political crises
reshaped party-state institutions, redefined relations between
party and state institutions, altered the relationship between the
state and various groups and organizations within society, and
modified the political practices of these regimes. He shows how
these events transformed cultural categories, produced collective
memories, and imposed long-lasting constraints on mass political
behavior and the policy choices of ruling elites. These crises
shaped the political evolution of the region, produced important
cross-national differences among state-socialist regimes, and
contributed to the distinctive patterns of their collapse.
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