The relationship between democratisation and invigoration of civil society: The case of Hungary and Poland

East European Quarterly

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 149-177

  Korkut, Umut ^a  

^a DOGUS UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

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EID: 33646712101     PISSN: 00128449     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (115)

1. For an extensive discussion on these differences, see Umut Korkut, The Relationship between Democratisation and Invigoration of Civil Society in Hungary, Poland and Romania (Budapest: Central European University: unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 2003).
2. Umut Korkut, "The European Union and the Accession Process in Hungary, Poland and Romania: Is There a Place for Social Dialogue?" Perspectives on European Politics and Society 3, 2 (2002): 297-324.
3. For a more detailed discussion on the historical legacies of communism, see Umut Korkut, "The Position of Interest Groups in Eastern European Democracies: Maturing Servicemen or Trojan Horses?" in Rescuing Democracy: The Lure of Associative Elixir, ed. Sigrid Rossteutscher (Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science, forthcoming).
4. Elżbieta Tarkowska, "Waiting Society: The Temporal Dimension of Transformation in Poland," The Polish Sociological Bulletin 102, 2 (1993): 93-102, pp. 95-96.
5. Tarkowska, "Waiting Society."
6. L. Bruszt, "Reforming Alliances: Labour, Management and State Bureaucracy in Hungary's Economic Transformation" in Strategic Choices and Path Dependency in Post-Socialism. Institutional Dynamics in the Transformation of Practices, eds. Jerzy Hausner, Bob Jessop and Klaus Nielsen (Aldershot, Brookefield: Edward Elgar, 1995): 261-286, p. 284.
7. Andrzej Rychard, Reform, Adaptation, Breakthrough. The Sources of and Limits to Institutional Change in Poland (Warsaw: IFIS Publishers, 1993), p. 83.
8. Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik, "Contentious Politics in New Democracies: East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia 1989-1993," World Politics 50, 4 (July 1998): 547-581, p. 560;
9. Juliusz Gardawski, Barbara Ga̧ciarz, Andrzej Mokrzyszewski, and Włodzimierz Pańków, Rozpad Bastionu? Zwia̧zki zawodowe w gospodarce prywatyzowanej [The Fall of the Bastion? Trade Unions in a Privatized Economy] (Warsaw: Institut Spraw Publicznych, 1999), pp. 153, 157, 159 has 1998 data for trade unions leaders' reaction to economic changes in Poland.
10. This idea owes itself to the previous Solidarity rhetoric on "our state," meaning the true state of the Polish nations, as against the illegitimate or alien state of the communists.
11. Rychard, Reform, Adaptation, Breakthrough, pp. 119, 127, 130.
12. J. Gorniak and J. Jerschina, "From Corporatism to...Corporatism: The Transformation of Interest Representation in Poland," in Strategic Choice and Path-Dependency in Post-Socialism: Institutional Dynamics in the Transformation Process, eds. Jerzy Hausner, Bob Jessop and Klaus Nielsen (Aldershot, Brookefield: Edward Elgar, 1995): 168-189, p. 177.
13. Bruszt, "Reforming Alliances," p. 276.
14. András Bozóki, "Central European Ways to Democracy," Draft Conference Paper prepared for the Workshop on "Transitions from Communist Rule in Comparative Perspective" (Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, November 15-16, 2002), p. 37.
15. In this sense, some thought that the inclusion of former communists in the transition negotiations corrupted the genesis of new democracy. See Boźki, "Central European Ways to Democracy," p. 34 for a further discussion.
16. András Arató, "Forradalom, civil tarsadalom és demokracia Kelet-Európaban [Revolution, Civil Society and Democracy in Eastern Europe]," Mozgó Világ 16, 8 1990
17. in Bill Lomax, "The Strange Death of Civil Society in Post-Communist Hungary," Journal of Communist Studies and Transitional Politics 13, 1 (March 1997): 41-63, p. 42.
18. Kazimierz Slomczyński, Krisztina Janiśka, Bogdan Mach, and Wojez Zabarowski, Mental Adjustment to the Post-Communist System in Poland (Warsaw: IFIS Publishers, 1999), p. 136.
19. Slomczyński, Janiśka, Mach, and Zabarowski, Mental Adjustment to the Post-Communist System in Poland, p. 93.
20. Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, Aspirations, Values and Interests. Poland 1989-1994 (Warsaw: IFIS Publishers, 1994), p. 59.
21. This approach, therefore, is incompatible with some literature on constitution-making in East Central Europe, which foresees that, "[institutions] organise patterns of socially constructed norms and roles, and they define the prescribed behaviours that those who occupy these roles are expected to pursue." See Jan Zielonka (ed.), Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe, vol. 1: Institutional Engineering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in Democratization, 2001).
22. In terms of environmental effects on the formal structures of institutions, structural effects may diffuse if and when environments create boundary-spanning exigencies. See John W Meyer and Brian Rowan, "Institutionalized Organisations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony," in The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis, eds. Walter W. Powell and Paul J DiMaggio (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991): 41-62, p. 47.
23. DiMaggio and Powell called this "institutional isomorphism" and went as far as hypothesizing that "the greater the extent to which organizations in a field transact with agencies of the state, the greater the extent of isomorphism in the field as a whole." See P. J. DiMaggio and W. W. Powell, "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality," in The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis, eds. Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991): 63-82, p. 77.
24. Beginning with Parsons, who early emphasized that the correspondence of the values pursued by the organization must be congruent with wider societal values if the organization is to receive legitimation, legitimacy has been largely interpreted as pertaining to societal evaluations of organizational goals. On this issue, see W. R. Scott, "Unpacking Institutional Arguments," in The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis, eds. Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991): 164-182, p. 169.
25. Another explanation of organizational legitimacy refers to the degree of cultural support for an organization - the extent to which the array of established cultural accounts provides explanations for its existence. On this issue, see J. W. Meyer and W. R. Scott, "Centralization and the Legitimacy Problems of Local Governments," in Organisational Environments: Ritual and Rationality, eds. Meyer, John W. and Scott, W. Richard (Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE, 1983).
26. Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (Cambridge, London: Cambridge University Press, 1977): 45-64.
27. E. Sik and B. Wellman, "Network Capital in Capitalist, Communist and Post-communist Countries," in Networks in the Global Village Life in Contemporary Communities, ed. Barry Wellman (Oxford: Westview Press, 1999): 225-255, pp. 225, 243-244.
28. J. Habuda, "Post-Socialist Transformation in Hungary: Entering a Second Stage?," in Strategic Choices and Path Dependency in Post-Socialism. Institutional Dynamics in the Transformation of Practices (Aldershot, Brookefield: Edward Elgar, 1995): 309-324, pp. 309-311.
29. Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy Toward Consolidation (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
30. Jeffrey Kopstein, "Review Article Post-Communist Democracy: Legacies and Outcomes," Comparative Politics 35 (2003): 231-251.
31. This is a belief in line with the basic assertion of the theorists of participatory democracy, "that responsible social and political action depends largely on the sort of institutions within which the individual has, politically, to act" for a further discussion see Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory, p. 77.
32. Rychard, Reform, Adaptation, Breakthrough, p. 8.
33. M. Szabó, "Adaptation and Resistance: The Institutionalisation of Protest Movements (1990-1994)," in Democratic Legitimacy in Post-Communist Societies, ed. András Bozoki (Budapest: T-Twins Publishers, 1994): 137-154, p. 139.
34. T. Fellegi, "Regime Transformation and the Mid-Level Bureaucratic Forces in Hungary," in Bound to Change: Consolidating Democracy in East Central Europe, ed. Peter M. E. Volten (Colorado: Westview Press, 1992): 119-150.
35. Bozóki, "Central European Ways to Democracy."
36. In this respect, the OPZZ in Poland continued to be mainly the trade union of the former communist party members whereas Solidarity kept the intellectuals and the workers. On this point, see, Wł. Adamski, "Conflict in Trade Union Affiliations: Continuity and Change," in Societal Conflict and Systemic Change: The Case of Poland 1980-1992, ed. Wladysław Adamski (Warsaw: IFIS Publishers, 1993)
37. and "The Structural Legacy of Socialism and the Dynamics of Post-Socialism," in System Change and Modernisation: East-West in Comparative Perspective, eds. Władysław Adamski and Jan Buncak (Warsaw: IFIS Publishers. 1999).
38. Also, Leś's and Nałecz's findings on employment in civil sector in Eastern Europe illustrate that 11% of all employment in the civil sector is in professional organizations (trade unions and business organizations). This is only 5% in the European Union. This provides some clues as to how crowded civil society organizations can be in Central Europe with different levels of bureaucracies, and as such may support my hypothesis on the shift from the political sphere into the civil sphere in the aftermath of regime change. On this point, see Ewa Leś and Sławomir Naiccz, Sektor Non-Profit. Nowe Dane i Nowe Spojrzenie na Społeczenstwo Obywatelskie w Polsce [New Data and New Perspectives on Civil Society in Poland] (Warszawa: ISPPAN, 2001).
39. I. Pańków, "Trade Unions and Politics," in The Second Generation of Democratic Elites in Central and Eastern Europe, eds. Janina Frentzel-Zagorska and Jacek Wasilewski (Warsaw: Institute of Political Studies, 2000): p. 257.
40. In time, people's dissatisfaction with the system only grew worse and civil society organizations as parts of this system were influenced by this negative attitude. In this respect, the results of a survey from 1998 are quite important. 20% of the respondents from 202 factories in Poland asserted that, the Solidarity trade union does not serve workers well and almost 17% believe that the Solidarity trade union does not serve the country well. Comparably, the OPZZ received more trust from the respondents in terms of its abilities to serve the country and the workers' interests. Another survey, carried out by CBOS showed that in Poland in 1999, 52% of the Poles had a negative while 30% of them had a positive perception of civil society in their countries. On this point, see Wł. Pańków and B. Ga̧ciarz, "Industrial Relations in Poland: From Social Partnership to Enlightened Paternalism?" in Poland into the New Millennium, eds. George Blazyca and Ryszard Rapacki (Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2001): 72-90, pp. 76-77.
41. T. Cox and L. Váss, "Civil Society and Interest Representation in Hungarian Political Development," in Hungary: The Politics of Transition, eds. Terry Cox and Andy Furlong (London: Frank Cass. 1995): 153-179, pp. 175-176.
42. Irena Pańków, Polish Academy of Sciences (personal interview, Warsaw, April 2002).
43. Polish Press Agency June 5, 2001.
44. Personal interviews with the International Relations Representative of VDSZSZ, Free Trade Unions of Railway Workers, Hungary; President, KDSZSZ Transportation Workers' Trade Union Federation, Hungary; President, Trade Union of Hungarian Railwaymen, Hungary.
45. Personal interviews with the President and vice-president, LIGA PDSZ Democratic Union of Pedagogists, Hungary.
46. All interviews from the MSZOSZ Trade Union Confederation and individual federations as well as some interviewees from LIGA and ASZSZ (Autonom) Alliance of Autonomous Trade Unions Confederations.
47. Personal interviews with the President, Transportation Workers' Federation, Munkástanácsok, Hungary; President and vice-president, LIGA PDSZ Democratic Union of Pedagogists, Hungary; Manager President, KISOSZ National Federation of Traders' and Caterers, Hungary; International Relations Representative, MGYOSZ, Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists, Hungary; Director of International and Training Affairs, IPOSZ, Hungarian Association of Craftsmen's Corporations, Hungary.
48. Personal interviews with the Head of General Office, MSZOSZ Trade Union Confederation, Hungary; President and Vice-president, LIGA PDSZ Democratic Union of Pedagogists, Hungary; General Secretary, "Hangya" Co-operative Association of Agricultural Producers, Hungary; IPOSZ, Hungarian Association of Craftsmen's Corporations, Hungary. Similar to this group, the Vice-president, VOSZ National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, Hungary asserted that interest groups should be loyal to political parties.
49. Personal interviews with the President and vice-president, LIGA PDSZ Democratic Union of Pedagogists, Hungary; Head of the International Relations Office, Munkástanácsok trade union confederation, Hungary; Manager President, KISOSZ, Hungary; Secretary of Social Dialogue in Hungarian Ministry of Economic Affairs - Employers' Side.
50. Personal interviews with the President of the KDSZSZ Transportation Workers' Trade Union Federation from Hungary mentions SZEF (Forum for the Co-operation of Trade Unions), LIGA, Munkástanácsok trade union confederations in this category. I did not come across any confirmation of his argument during my interviews with those organizations, mentioned by him.
51. Personal interviews with the Member of the Council of Presidents, MOSZ, National Federation of Agricultural Co-operators and Producers, Hungary.
52. During the time of the interview, Orbán coalition government was in office.
53. Personal interviews with the International Relations Representative of VDSZSZ Free Trade Unions of Railway Workers', Hungary; Head of International Relations Department, LIGA Trade Union Confederation, Hungary; President, Iron and Metal Workers' Trade Union, Hungary; President, Trade Union of Hungarian Railwaymen, Hungary.
54. Personal interviews with the Vice-president, FZZ, "Metalowcy" Federation of Metal Workers' Trade Union, Poland; Vice-president and Director of Gdańsk Employers' Organization, Poland; Deputy-president, OPZZ, Trade Union Confederation, Poland; Chairman of Solidarnośc Food Workers' Secretariat, Poland; Director in Chief, Association of Chambers of Agriculture, Poland.
55. Ekiert and Kubik, "Contentious Politics in New Democracies."
56. Personal interviews with the Deputy Director of Foreign Department, PKPP Polish Confederation of Private Employers, Poland; Director in Chief, KRIR, National Council of Agricultural Chambers, Poland; Vice-president and Director of Gdańsk Employers' Organization, Poland.
57. Teresa Kuczyńska, "The Capitalists Among Us," Telos 92, pp. 159-163.
58. I owe this analysis to Professor Ronald Manzer, University of Toronto.
59. "Ludność Polski and Jej Rzeczywistość " [The Population of Poland and Its Situation] (Warsaw: Council of Ministers, 1990), (typescript) in Kolarska-Bobinska, Aspirations. Values and Interests. Poland 1989-1994, p. 68.
60. Robert C Tucker, Politics as Leadership (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981), p. 68.
61. Michael McFaul, "The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship. Non-Co-operative Transitions in the Post-Communist World," Draft Conference Paper prepared for the Workshop on "Transitions from Communist Rule in Comparative Perspective," Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, November 15-16, 2002, p. 18.
62. Bozóki, "Central European Ways to Democracy," p. 36.
63. On this point, see Kjell Engelbrekt, "Unfinished Democracy. Political Transformation in Post-Communist Southeastern Europe," Problems of Post-Communism 44, 6 (November/December 1997): 3-13;
64. David Ost, "Eastern Europe After the Social Democratic Collapse: A Symposium," Telos 107 (Spring 1996): 103-121;
65. Ivan Vejvoda, "East-Central Europe's Uncharted Democratic Waters," Peace Review 9, 3 (September 1997): 365-371.
66. On this point, see Janina Frentzel-Zagorska, "Civil Society in Poland and Hungary," Soviet Studies 42, 4 (1990): 759-778, p. 762 for a comprehensive discussion.
67. Jan Szczepański, "The Polish Society on the Threshold of the 90s," in Poland in the Perspective of Global Change, Globality versus Locality, ed. Antoni Kuklinski (Warsaw: Polish Association for the Club of Rome, 1991), p. 214.
68. David A. Kideckel, "Storm and Stasis: The Paradox of Labour in Post-Socialist Romania," South-East Europe Review (special issue 2001): 107-32, p. 102.
69. Attila Ágh, "Early Consolidation and Performance Crisis: The Majoritarian-Consensus Democracy Debate in Hungary," West European Politics 24, 3 (July 2001): 89-112, p. 96.
70. Fellegi, "Regime Transformation," pp. 140-148.
71. Zoltán Berényi, "Constitutional Democracy and Civil Society in Post-Communist Hungary," (Belfast: Ph.D. Dissertation, The Queen's University of Belfast), p. 113.
72. Krzaklewski lost his position in Solidarity Trade Union Confederation in September 2002 following criticisms of his record, and especially of excessive involvement in politics. On this issue, see European Industrial Relations Observatory on-line report on Poland at http://www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int/2003/ 01/Feature/PL0301104F.html.
73. Włodzimierz Pańków, Polish Academy of Sciences (personal interview, Warsaw, April 2002).
74. On this topic, among many, see Michael Bernhard, "Civil Society After the First Transition. Dilemmas of Post-Communist Democratisation in Poland and Beyond," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 29, 3 (1996): 309-330;
75. J. Hausner, "The State Enterprise Pact and the Potential for Tripartism in Poland," in Tripartism on Trial: Tripartite Consultations and Negotiations in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. Robert Kyloh (Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 1995);
76. David Ost, "Illusionary Corporatism in Eastern Europe: Neoliberal Tripartism and Postcommunist Class Identities," Politics and Society 28, 4 (December 2000): 503-530.
77. Ronald J. Hill, "Democracy in Eastern Europe," in Developing Democracy. Comparative Research in Honour of J. F. P. Blondel, eds. Ian Budge and David McKay (London: Sage Publications, 1994): 267-283.
78. It was 7% in 1992, 10% in 1993 and 19% in 1997.
79. Centrum Badania Opinii Spotecznej, Podmiotowość Obywatelska Polaków-Poczucia Wpływu na Życie Publiczne [The Feeling of Subjectivity: The Feeling of Influence on Public Reference] (Warsaw, 1997).
80. A survey from 1999 in Poland showed that 52% of the Poles had a negative while 30% of them had a positive perception of civil society in their countries. On this issue, see Pańków and Ga̧ciarz, "Industrial Relations in Poland: From Social Partnership to Enlightened Paternalism?" for a further discussion.
81. S. Nowak, "Społeczeństwo Polskie Czasu Kryzysu w Świetle Teorii Anomii [Polish Society at the Time of Crisis in the Light of the Theory of Anomy]," Polska 2000 (Warszawa, Jablonna, 1984), p. 160
82. in Rychard, Reform, Adaptation, Breakthrough, p. 21.
83. Berényi, "Constitutional Democracy," p. 23.
84. He was the previous head of the conservative right wing "Justice and Law" Party.
85. Zbigniew Bujak (personal interview, Warsaw, April 2002).
86. Hausner, "The State Enterprise Pact and the Potential for Tripartism in Poland," p. 120.
87. Denis MacShane, "The Changing Contours of Trade Unionism in Eastern Europe," in New Frontiers in European Industrial Relations, eds. Richard Hyman and A. Ferner (Oxford: Blackwell Business, 1994): p. 348.
88. MacShane, "The Changing Contours of Trade Unionism," p. 349.
89. Korkut, "The Position of Interest Groups in Eastern European Democracies: Maturing Servicemen or Trojan Horses?" forthcoming.
90. I presented my respondents with 8 factors in total. I, hereby, present those related with political links.
91. Ronald la Due Lake and Robert Huckfeldt, "Social Capital; "Social Networks and Political Participation," Political Psychology 19, 3 (1998): 567-584, p. 568.
92. Personal interview with the President, VASAS Federation of Hungarian Metal Workers, Hungary.
93. Personal interview with the President, Trade Union of Hungarian Railwaymen, Hungary.
94. Personal interview with the Member of the Council of Presidents, MOSZ, National Federation of Agricultural Co-operators and Producers, Hungary.
95. Personal interview with the KDSZSZ Transportation Workers' Trade Union Federation, Hungary; Manager President, Solidarność Miners' and Energy Workers' Secretariat, Poland; Vice-president of Solidarność Trade Union Confederation, Poland; International Relations Representative of VDSZSZ, Free Trade Union of Railway Workers, Hungary; Vice-president of OPZZ FZZ "Metalowcy" Metal Workers' Federation, Poland; President of NSZZ RI The Independent Autonomous Trade Unions of Individual Farmers, Poland.
96. Personal interview with the Head of International Relations Department, LIGA Trade Union Confederation, Hungary; Head of International Relations Department, Munkástanácsok Workers' Councils' Trade Union Confederation, Hungary; Vice-President, Solidarność Trade Union Confederation, Poland.
97. Personal interview with the International Relations Officer, VDSZSZ, Free Trade Union of Railway Workers, Hungary; Head of International Relations Department, LIGA Trade Union Confederation, Hungary.
98. Personal interview with the Vice-President of Federation of Mining Workers, OPZZ, Poland.
99. Personal interview with the President, "Hangya" Co-operatives of Agricultural Producers, Director of International and Training Affairs; IPOSZ, Hungarian Association of Craftsmen's Corporations, Hungary; Deputy President, OPZZ Trade Union Confederation.
100. Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, "The Return of Populism - The 2000 Romanian Election," Government and Opposition 36, 2 (Spring 2001): 230-252, p. 244.
101. Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej, Podmiotowość Obywatelska Polaków-Poczucia Wpływu na Życie Publiczne [The Feeling of Subjectivity: The Feeling of Influence on Public Reference].
102. Włodzimierz Pańków and Barbara Ga̧ciarz, "Industrial Relations in Poland," pp. 77-78, 86.
103. Anna Seleny, "Old Political Rationalities and New Democracies: Compromise and Confrontation in Hungary and Poland," World Politics 51, 4 (1999): 484-519.
104. Szalai, "Two Studies on Transition: Intellectuals and Value Changes A World Falling Apart. The Change of Value Systems in Hungary."
105. Gyorgy Lengyel, "A magyar gazdasági elit a '90-enterprises évek elsö feiében" [The Hungarian economic elite in the first half of the 1990s], Magyar Politikai Ėvkönyve (Demokrácia Kutatások Magyar Közponrja Alapítvány, 1995): 314-323.
106. László Bruszt and János Simon, "The Great Transformation in Hungary and Eastern Europe," in Flying Blind. Yearbook of Hungarian Political Science Association (Magyar Politikatudományi Tarsaság, 1992);
107. Szalai, "Two Studies on Transition," p. 35.
108. Pańków and Ga̧ciarz, "Industrial Relations in Poland," pp. 87-89.
109. A. Ágh, "The Paradoxes of Transition: The External and Internal Overload of the Transition process," in Hungary: The Politics of Transition, eds. Terry Cox and Andy Furlong (London: Frank Cass, 1995): 15-34
110. and "Understanding Politics in Hungary."
111. Bruszt, "The Antall Government and the Economic Interest Groups"
112. and P. Evans, "The State as a Problem and Solution: Embedded Autonomy and Structural Change," in The Politics of Economic Adjustment. International Constraints, Distributive Conflicts and the State, eds. Stephan Haggard and Robert R Kaufman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1992): 139-181.
113. D. Ost and S. Crowley, "Introduction: The Surprise of Labour Weakness in Postcommunist Society," in Workers After Workers ' States. Labour and Politics in Postcommunist Eastern Europe, eds. Stephen Crowley and David Ost (Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, INC. 1992): pp. 1-13, pp. 4-5.
114. Umut Korkut, "The European Union and the Accession Process in Hungary, Poland and Romania," pp. 308-309.
115. Victor Gomez and Wojtek Kość, "Two Cities, One Election," Transitions Online, September, 27, 2001.