FORMATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE SOCIALIST ERA

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FORMATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE SOCIALIST ERA

• 4.9 11.10.2007
• University of Helsinki
• Dr. Katalin Miklóssy

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4.9. Katalin Miklóssy Introduction
Socialist Era Reconsidered

• Challenging general assumptions
• No civil society
• Not significant, crashed
• Only exceptions

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These assumptions are rooted in the research
tradition

• In the East
• DURING THE COLD WAR
• Dominated by the Marxist-Leninist social theory
• Social sciences were out-ruled until the late
  1960s
• Distorted image
• AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM
• black-and-white picture of the past

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In the West DURING THE COLD WAR

• Sovietology
• Simplified understanding of power in the
  communist system
• TRANSITION PERIOD
• Civil society is the ultimate barometer of
  democracy

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Common misperceptions

• Periodic approach
• Overwhelming focus on power
• Questionable interpretations of the civic type of
  organisations created by the communists

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What was the system like in the light of new
research?

• The system was not rock solid but was constantly
  changing over time
• I. period Eastern Europe (late 1940s - mid 1950s)
  creating the system forbidding or taking over
  pre-war civic organizations
• II. period post-Stalinist era Khruschevs dawn
  relaxation of the partys grip on society
  completely new attitude towards society
• III period post-Khruschevist era - Brezhnevist
  policy was a major set-back BUT there was no
  return anymore to the Stalinist practices