Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T11:34:43.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Communist regimes, legitimacy and the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Monica Ciobanu
Monica Ciobanu*
Affiliation:
Sociology, Plattsburgh State University of New York, Plattsburgh, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to clarify the relationship between forms of political legitimacy employed by communist regimes in East and Central Europe and subsequent models of revolutionary change in 1989. The conceptual basis of the analysis lies in Max Weber's theoretical framework of legitimacy. The four cases selected for comparison are Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania. The attempts of de-Stalinization and reformation of these party-state regimes through the introduction of paternalistic and also more goal-oriented measures could not prevent their disintegration in the 1980s and their subsequent collapse in 1989. But, I argue, it was the withdrawal of ideological support by elites that ultimately brought communism to an end. The differences in revolutionary scenarios and transitions to democracy in the four cases indicate the importance of a shift in both rulers and masses towards interest in dialogue and compromise. Hungary and Poland represent the clearest scenarios in which communist parties acted as agents of regime change in a rational-legal direction. The Bulgarian case stands as an intermediary case between these two and Romania. Finally, Romania represents an extreme case of violent revolution and the overthrow of a traditionalist and sultanistic regime and illustrates the difficulties following a complete collapse of political authority.

Keywords

communismlegitimacytransition to democracy
Type
Special Section: Legitimacy and the Legacy of 1989
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arato, Andrew. “Critical Sociology and Authoritarian State Socialism.” Habermas, Critical Debates, Ed. Thompson, John B. and Held, David, Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1982: 196–218. Print.Google Scholar
Atanasova, Ivanka. “Lyudmila Zhivkova and the Paradox of Ideology and Identity in Communist Bulgaria.” East European Politics and Societies 18.2 (2004): 278–315. Print.Google Scholar
Barker, Rodney. Legitimating Identities: The Self-Presentation of Rulers and the Subjects. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Bell, John D. The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov. Stanford: U of California P, 1986. Print.Google Scholar
Bensman, Joseph. “Max Weber's Concept of Legitimacy: An Evaluation.” Conflict and Control Challenge to Legitimacy of Modern Governments, Ed. Vidich, Arthur J. and Glassman, Ronald M., Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979: 17–48. Print.Google Scholar
Bernhard, Michael T. The Origins of Democratization in Poland: Workers, Intellectuals and Oppositional Politics. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Bromke, Adam. Eastern Europe in the Aftermath of Solidarity. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
Chirot, Daniel, ed. The Crisis of Leninism and the Decline of the Left: The Revolutions of 1989. Seattle: U of Washington P, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Deletant, Dennis. Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989. London: Sharpe, 1995. Print.Google Scholar
DiPalma, Giuseppe. “Legitimation from the Top to Civil Society: Politico-cultural Change in Eastern Europe.” World Politics 44.1 (1991): 49–80. Print.Google Scholar
Feher, Ferenc, Heller, Agnes, and Markus, Gyorgy. Dictatorship over Needs. New York: St. Martin's, 1983. Print.Google Scholar
Fischer, Mary-Ellen. Nicolae Ceausescu and the Romanian Political Leadership: Nationalism and Personalization of Power. Skidmore College: Edwin M. Mosley Faculty Research Lecture, 1982. Print.Google Scholar
Grzymala-Busse, Anna. Rebuilding Leviathan. Party Competition and State Expansion in Post-Communist Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Heller, Agnes. “Phases of Legitimation in Soviet-Type Societies.” Political Legitimation in Communist States, Ed. Rigby, T.H., Feher, Ferenc and Heller, Agnes, London: MacMillan Press, 1982: 45–63. Print.Google Scholar
Holmes, Leslie. The End of Communist Power: Anti-corruption Campaigns and Legitimation Crisis. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Kemp-Welch, Anthony. Poland under Communism: A Cold War History. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
King, Robert. A History of the Romanian Communist Party. Stanford: U of California P, 1980. Print.Google Scholar
Kiss, Janos. “Between Reform and Revolution.” East European Politics and Societies 12.2 (1994): 34–57. Print.Google Scholar
Kolarova, Rumyana, and Dimitrov, Dimitr. “The Roundtable Talks in Bulgaria.” The Roundtable Talks and the Breakdown of Communism, Ed. Elster, Jon, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996: 178–212. Print.Google Scholar
Kornai, Janos. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.Google Scholar
Laba, Roman. The Roots of Solidarity: A Political Sociology of Poland's Working Class Democratization. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Lewis, Paul, ed. Political Crisis and Legitimation. New York: St. Martin's, 1984. Print.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan J., and Stepan, Alfred. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Lipski, J., et al. KOR: A History of the Workers’ Defense Committee in Poland, 1976–1984. Erving: California UP, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
McIntyre, Robert J. Bulgaria: Politics, Economics and Society. New York: Pinter, 1988. Print.Google Scholar
Monticone, C. The Catholic Church in Communist Poland: 1945–1985. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. Print.Google Scholar
Osiatynski, Wiktor. “The Roundtable Talks in Poland.” The Roundtable Talks and the Breakdown of Communism, Ed. Elster, Jon, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996: 21–68. Print.Google Scholar
Pakulski, Jan. “Eastern Europe and ‘Legitimacy Crisis'.” Australian Journal of Political Science 25 (1990): 272–88. Print.Google Scholar
Pasti, Vladimir. The Challenge of Transition. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Rigby, Thomas, and Feher, Ferenc, eds. Political Legitimation in Communist States. New York: St. Martin's, 1982. Print.Google Scholar
Sajo, Andras. “The Roundtable Talks in Hungary.” The Roundtable Talks and the Breakdown of Communism, Ed. Elster, Jon, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996. 69–98. Print.Google Scholar
Siani-Davies, Peter. The Romanian Revolution of 1989. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Sokolewicz, Wojciech. “The Influence of External Factors on the Consolidation of Liberal Democracy in Poland: The Constitutional Dimension.” Democratic Consolidation – The International Dimension: Hungary, Poland and Spain, Ed. Mangott, Gerhard and et al. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2000: 73–95. Print.Google Scholar
Szelenyi, Ivan, and Szelenyi, Balasz. “Why Socialism Failed: Toward a Theory of System Breakdown – Causes of Disintegration of East European State Socialism.” Theory and Society 23 (1994): 211–31. Print.Google Scholar
Tismaneanu, Vladimir. Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism. Berkeley: U of California P, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Torok, Gabor. “External Influences on the Hungarian Party System.” Democratic Consolidation – The International Dimension: Hungary, Poland and Spain. Ed. Mangott, Gerhard and et al. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2000: 187–215. Print.Google Scholar
Verdery, Katherine. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausescu's Romania. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. Economy and Society Vol. 1. Ed. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus. Berkeley: U of California P, 1978. Print.Google Scholar
Wedel, Janine. The Private Poland. New York: Facts, 1986. Print.Google Scholar