PSC 6364 - Governments and Politics of Central and Eastern Europe
Sergei Gretsky and Sharon L. Wolchik – Fall 2011
Tuesdays, 3:30PM-6:00PM; Elliott School Room 308
Office: IERES, 412M 1957 Street
Tel: Wolchik 202-994-7524; home: 301 587-0310
Gretsky 202-994-7524; cell 202 550-7945
E-mail: gretskys@hotmail.com, gretskys@gwu.edu
wolchik@gwu.edu, swolchik@gmail.com
Hours: Tues. 6-7 pm
& by appointment
This course will introduce students to the analysis of the domestic politics of
Central and Eastern Europe in the communist and post-communist period. Issues to be
considered include the creation of the Soviet bloc; the transformation of society; efforts
to adapt the Soviet model to better reflect underlying Central and East European realities,
and the collapse of communism in the region. Most of the course will focus on the postcommunist era. We will examine the creation and functioning of new institutions,
political leaders, political parties, elections and other forms of citizen participation,
political values and attitudes, and civil society. We will also look at several policy areas
of particular significance.
Course requirements include active participation in class discussion; participating
in in-class exercises, emailing 2 questions for discussion by Monday p.m. before class;
and a 25-30 page research paper. Papers may be either standard academic research papers
or policy papers. Papers are due on the last day of class and will be accepted earlier.
The following books are available for purchase at the GWU bookstore.
Required readings:
Joseph Rothschild. Return to Diversity.
Valerie Bunce, Subversive Institutions
Zsuzsa Csergo, Talk of the Nation
Sharon L. Wolchik and Jane L. Curry, eds., Second Edition, Central and East
European Politics: From Communism to Democracy
V.P. Gagnon, The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s
I. Introduction
II. The Antecedent Society
Joseph Rothschild, Return to Diversity, Chapters 1 & 2.
1
Jan Gross, "Social Consequences of War: Preliminaries to the Study of Imposition of
Communist Regimes in East Central Europe," East European Politics and
Societies, 3:2 (Spring, 1989), pp. 198-214.
Andrew Janos, "The One-Party State and Social Mobilization: East Europe between the
Wars," in Samuel P. Huntington and Clement Henry Moore (eds.), Authoritarian
Politics in Modern Society, pp. 204-236.
Gale Stokes, "Class and Nation: Competing Explanatory Systems," East European
Politics and Societies, 4:3 (Winter 1990), pp. 98-100.
If you do not have a background in Central and Eastern European history, you may wish
to read one of the following:
 C.A. McCartney and A.W. Palmer, Independent Eastern Europe.
 Alan Palmer, The Lands Between.
 Joseph Rothschild, East Central Europe between the Two World Wars.
 Hugh Seton-Watson, Eastern Europe between the Wars.
 L.S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453.
 R.L. Wolff, The Balkans in Our Time.
 Peter Beck, Edward Mast, Perry Tapper, The History of Eastern Europe for
Beginners.
III. The Establishment of Communist Systems and the Transformation of Society
(in-class exercise 1)
Rothschild, Return to Diversity, Chapters 3-6; OR
Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Soviet Bloc, Chapters 1-17.
Zvi Gitelman, ‘Power and Authority in Eastern Europe,” in Chalmers Johnson (ed.),
Change in Communist Systems, pp.236-64.
Samuel Huntington, “Social and Institutional Dynamics of One Party Systems,” in
Huntington and Moore, Authoritarian Politics, Chapter 1.
Richard Lowenthal, ‘Development vs. Utopia in Communist Policy,” in Johnson, pp.33116.
IV. The Collapse of Communism and the Transition to Post-Communist Rule
Rudolf Tokes, Hungary’s Negotiated Revolution, chapters TBA
Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation,
Chapters 1, 4, 16, 17, 18, and 21. (ON RESERVE in GELMAN)
Valerie Bunce and Maria Csanadi, “Uncertainty in the Transition; Post-Communism in
Hungary,” in East European Politics and Societies, 7:2 (Spring 1993), pp. 240275.
2
V. Political Culture and Ideology
George Schopflin, "Obstacles to Liberalism in Post-Communist Politics," East European
Politics and Societies, (Winter 1990).
Vladimir Tismaneanu, Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in
Post-Communist Europe, Chapters 1 and 2.
Geoffrey Pridham and Attila Agh, Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in EastCentral Europe, “Mainly sunny with scattered clouds: political culture in EastCentral Europe” by Peter A. Ulram and Fritz Plasser.
VI. Political Elites (in-class exercise 2)
Robert Putnam, Comparative Study of Political Elites, especially Chapters 1, 3, 7. (ON
RESERVE in GELMAN)
Gil Eyal, Ivan Szelenyi and Eleanor Townsley, Making Capitalism Without Capitalists:
Class Formation and Elite Struggles in Post-Communist Central Europe, Chapters
1, 3, and 5.
John Higley, Jan Pakulski and Wlodzimierz Wesolowski., eds., Postcommunist elites and
democracy in Eastern Europe, read 2 chapters of your choice. (ON RESERVE in
GELMAN)
VII. Political Parties and Civil Society
Anna Gryzmala-Busse, Rebuilding Leviathan, Chapters 1 and 2.
Marc Morje Howard, Free Not to Participate: the Weakness of Civil Society in PostCommunist Europe.
Martin Butora, Miroslav Kollar, Grigorij Meseznikov, “Non-Governmental
Organizations and Volunteerism,” Slovakia 2006: A Global Report on the State of
Society.
David Stulik, “Civil Society in Central Europe: An Ever-Changing Landscape,” USAID,
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/dem_gov/ngoindex/2006/article2.pdf
VIII-IX. Political Economy of post-communist countries
Steven L. Sampson, “The Second Economy of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 493, The
Informal Economy, September 1987, pp. 120-136.
John Clark and Aaron Wildavsky, “Why Communism Collapses: The Moral and Material
Failures of Command Economies Are Intertwined,” Journal of Public Policy,
Vol. 10, No. 4, Oct. - Dec., 1990, pp. 361-390.
Leszek Balcerowicz, “Understanding Postcommunist Transitions,” Journal of
Democracy, October 1994, pp. 75-89.
Janos Kornai, “What the Change of System from Socialism to Capitalism Does and Does
Not Mean,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 14, No. 1, Winter, 2000,
pp. 27-42.
3
Andrew Spicer, Gerald A. McDermott, Bruce Kogut, “Entrepreneurship and Privatization
in Central Europe: The Tenuous Balance between Destruction and Creation,” The
Academy of Management Review, Vol. 25, No. 3, July 2000, pp. 630-649.
Aviezer Tucker; Jana Balharova; Ivo Losman; Jan Nemec; et al, “The Czech transition:
Politics before economics,” The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic
Studies; Winter 1997, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 395-416.
Jan Adam, “The Transition to a Market Economy in Hungary,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.
47, No. 6, September 1995, pp. 989-1006.
Wolchik and Curry, Fisher chapter
X. “Electoral Revolutions”
Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik, “Favorable Conditions and Electoral
Revolutions,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 17, no. 4 October 2006, pp. 5-18.
Marc Morje Howard, “Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Authoritarian
Regimes” (co-authored with Philip G. Roessler), in the American Journal of
Political Science, Vol. 50, No. 2 (2006), pp. 365-381.
Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik, wp article World Politics, January 2009
XI. Ethnicity and Nationalism
Sharon Wolchik, “The Politics of Ethnicity in Post-Communist Czechoslovakia,” in East
European Politics and Societies, 8:1 (Winter 1994), pp. 153-88.
Valerie Bunce, Subversive Institutions OR.
Zsusza Csergo, Talk of the Nation
XII. Ethnicity and Nationalism II: the Wars in former Yugoslavia
V.P. Gagnon, The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s.
XIII-XIV: Student Presentations
XV. Prospects and Conclusions
Adam Przeworski, et al., “What Makes Democracies Endure?” in Larry Diamond, et. al.,
Consolidating the Third World Democracies, Chapter 15.
Wolchik and Curry, Conclusion.
4