Social stratification: the bottom end

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Social stratification the bottom end

• 14/02/07

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Readings

• Pine, Frances, and Sue Bridger 1998.
  Introduction Transitions to Post-Socialism and
  Cultures of Survival. In Bridger, Sue, and
  Frances Pine (eds). Surviving Post-Socialism.
• Nazpary, Joma 2002. Networking as a Response to
  Chaos (Ch 4). In Post-Soviet Chaos Violence and
  Dispossession in Kazakhstan.
• Walker, Michael 1998. Survival Strategies in an
  Industrial Town in East Ukraine. In Bridger, Sue,
  and Frances Pine (eds). Surviving Post-Socialism.

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Discussion topics

• Survival strategies under communism
• blat
• Postcommunist transition
• Survival strategies under postcommunism
• Film New Penelope (2006)

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Communist societies

• Ideal
• from each according to his ability, to each
  according to his needs
• no classes
• Reality
• economies of shortage
• systemic preference of heavy industry
• resource-constrained
• Inequality
• Nomenklatura vs the rest
• gt dual economies

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Blat

• Blat
• good connections / informal contacts
• to obtain or arrange goods and services
• Po blatu
• through connections
• Po znakomstvu (by acquaintance)
• gt the importance of social capital

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Blat

• Origin of the term
• Pre-Soviet usage
• Blatnoi - criminal (thief) with connections
• Soviet usage
• new meaning
• banned from official discourse
• not included in Soviet Encyclopedia
• Especially prominent in the 1970s
• Brezhnevs Minister of Trade Blatov

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Blat

• Goods
• Consumer goods in shortage
• Goods with higher quality
• (Everything related to cars)
• Services
• Healthcare
• Housing
• Leisure activities
• Employment
• Education
• Protection (krysha)

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Blat

• Non-monetary
• A kind of barter based on personal relationship
  
• Worked where money did not
• Money not a shortage in the SU
• Reciprocal
• Ty mnye, ya tebye
• A kind of gift exchange and social solidarity
• Non-alienable character of goods/services offered
• Not necessarily parties of equal social status
• Dyadic or circular
• Mediated blat psychologically easier

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Blat vs bribe

• Bribery
• Immediate exchange
• Short-term relationship
• Usually singular event
• Blat
• Delayed return
• Long-lasting relations
• Repetitive exchanges

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Blat vs corruption

• Corruption
• Abuse of high public positions
• For private gain and profit
• Where money is in shortage
• Blat
• Satisfaction of everyday needs
• Reaction to economy of shortage
• Where goods are in shortage
• Postcommunist transition
• blat gt corruption

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Blat

• Adaptation to structural characteristics of the
  Soviet-type system
• gt No direct analogy in the West
• Guanxi in China
• Zalatwic sprawy in Poland
• Various forms of gift exchange in Melanesia
• Ledeneva (1998)
• Russias Economy of Favours Blat, Networking and
  Informal Exchange.

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Tolkach

• Tolkatj
• to push
• Tolkach
• Blat dealer or blatmeister in factories
• the person with ZIS (znakomstva i svyazi)
• gt Procurement of supplies through contacts
• institutionalization of blat

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Postcommunist transition

• Early 1990s
• Survival of the fittest
• Survival of those with connections
• Increasing poverty and social ills
• "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
• Matthew Effect
• For unto every one that hath shall be given, and
  he shall have abundance but from him that hath
  not shall be taken away even that which he hath
  (XXV29).

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Postcommunist transition

• Late 1990s
• Meritocracy
• Diligence, ambition and risk-taking are rewarded
• Culture of poverty
• Oscar Lewis (studies in Mexico City)
• Five Families (1959)
• The Children of Sánchez (1961)
• La Vida (1966)
• Paul Willis (study of Birmingham lads)
• Learning to Labour (1977)

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Postcommunist transition (Russia)

• 1) Steep decline in GDP and trade
• 7 years of consecutive GDP decline
• Cumulative output decline 45
• Real GDP 2000 64 of GDP 1990
• 2) Hyperinflation
• mid-1992 1 100 roubles
• Dec 1992 1 450 roubles
• Jan 1993 1 1100 roubles
• mid-1995 1 4400 roubles
• mid-1997 1 5785 roubles

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Postcommunist transition (Russia)

• 3) Initial shortages of goods, rationing
• 4) Foreign debt (both old Soviet and new
  Russian)
• Total debt 230 billion in 2005, of this 80
  bln government debt
• 5) Very large budget deficits
• 6) Little capital inflow massive capital flight
• not successful in attracting FDI
• Capital flight 3 of GDP in 1995-1996

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Postcommunist transition (Russia)

• 7) Decline in living standards
• 40 initially below poverty line (now 17?)
• 50 report familys material condition is
  bad/very bad
• drop in life expectancy (now 65)
• 8) Massive wage arrears since 1995
• Cabbages, bras, vodka, light bulbs
• 9) Unreliable banking sector, and the financial
  meltdown of 1998
• 1 new rouble 1000 old roubles
• 10) Emergence of mafia/organized crime

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Survival strategies under post-communism

• Survival strategies
• Multiple jobs
• Black / informal economy
• Self-sufficiency (Dachas)
• Out-migration
• Networks/corruption
• (Organised) crime

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Systemic explanations of corruption

• Political/administrative factors
• Underbureaucratization (Myrdal soft state )
• Overbureaucratization
• Economic factors
• Poverty
• Less corruption where public officials salaries
  high
• Cultural factors
• Clan/lineage based loyalties
• Incompatibility with Weberian bureaucracy
• External factors
• Transnational companies

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Functionalist approach to corruption

• Focus on the role functional dysfunction
• Eg. Overbureucratization
• Cuts through red tape
• Creates robust efficiency 
• Improves the quality of services
• Eg. Political centralization
• Allows public participation in decision-making
• Eg. Inequality
• Levelling mechanism (raises incomes) 
• Allows to spend less public money on salaries
• Critique
• Private ? Public gain 
• Actually increases inequality

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Crime

• Eg. Post-communist Russia
• Every form of crime has increased
• Murder rate doubled between 1991-94
• 5th highest murder rate in the world
• 4-5 times higher than in European countries
• 80 of murderers and 60 of victims drunk
• 0.7 of population (about 1m) behind bars

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Potential personnel for organised crime

• Former policemen
• 1987-89 - 47 000 policemen discharged
• 20 gt organized crime
• Former army personnel
• 1996 - 15 of army personnel cut
• Former sportsmen
• Collapse of the Soviet network of sports clubs
• Veterans of Afghan war

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Film

• New Penelope (Tajikistan, 2006)