Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged : Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009

Abstract

This book examines the 20-year aftermath of the 1989 assaults on established, state-sponsored socialism in the former Soviet bloc and in China. It brings together prominent experts on Eastern Europe and China to examine the respective trajectories of political, economic and social transformations that unfolded in these two areas, while also comparing the changes that ensued within the two regions. The volume features paired comparisons, with one chapter on the countries from the former Soviet bloc and one on China for each of the following themes: the reinstitutionalization of politics, the recasting of state-society relations, the reform of economic systems, changes in economic behavior, and transformations of social institutions. Even if they differ in their specific substantive focus and in their disciplinary grounding, the chapters share a concern with the fate of the state in postsocialism. They elaborate on topics such as the transformations of the old socialist state and its nature, activities and roles; civil society before and after 1989; the ways in which the state has, or has not acted to encourage new forms of economic behavior; and the state's responsibility for novel societal trends, whether in family formation, in protest or in inequality. The volume challenges claims of the unfeasibility of comparing across these divergent contexts by uncovering insights about political models and economic patterns that have emerged in the grand project of the transition from socialism.