Economic performance and communist legitimacy

World Politics

Volumn 38, Issue 3, 1986, Pages 462-482

  White, Stephen ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84976003887     PISSN: 00438871     EISSN: 10863338     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2010202     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. A good general discussion of legitimacy in contemporary politics is available in Bogdan Denitch, ed., Legitimation of Regimes: International Frameworks for Analysis (London and Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1979).
2. A useful selection of more recent papers may be found in William Connolly, ed., Legitimacy and the State (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984).
3. On political legitimation in communist countries, see particularly T. H. Rigby and Ferenc Feher, eds., Political Legitimation in Communist States (London: Macmillan, 1982)
4. Paul G. Lewis, ed., Eastern Europe: Political Crisis and Legitimation (London: Croom Helm, 1984).
5. David L. Sills, ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, IX (New York: Macmillan, Free Press, 1968), 244–45
6. John H. D. Schaar, Legitimacy in the Modern State (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1981), 15.
7. Related discussions are in Gianfranco Poggi, The Development of the Modern State (London: Hutchinson, 1978), 132–34
8. Gabriel A. Almond and G. Bingham Powell, Jr., Comparative Politics: System. Process and Policy, 2d ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978), 30–34.
9. Weber's discussion of legitimacy is most conveniently available in his Economy and Society, ed. by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, 2 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), I, 212–99.
10. Arnold Gehlen, Studien zur Anthropologie und Soziologie (Neuwied: Luchterhand, 1963), 255.
11. See, however, Christel Lane, “Legitimacy and Power in the Soviet Union through Socialist Ritual,” British Journal of Political Science 14 (April 1984), 219–32.
12. See, respectively, Vladimir Kusin, From Dubcek to Charter 77 (Edinburgh: Q Press, 1978), 179
13. Alex Pravda in Rudolf L. Tokés, ed., Opposition in Eastern Europe (London: Macmillan, 1979), 226–27, 250–52
14. Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller, and Gyorgy Markus, Dictatorship over Needs (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 104, 277–79.
15. Löwenthal, “The Ruling Party in a Mature Society,” in Mark G. Field, ed., Social Consequences of Modernization in Communist Societies (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 81–118, at 107.
16. Löwenthal takes a similar view in his chapter on “Political Legitimacy and Cultural Change in West and East,” in Social Change and Cultural Crisis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
17. Bialer, Stalin's Successors (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 295, 298.
18. Burks, “The Coming Crisis in the Soviet Union,” East European Quarterly 18 (Spring 1984), 61–71.
19. Pipes, “Can the Soviet Union Reform?” Foreign Affairs 63 (Fall 1984), 47–61, at 50.
20. See Jan Drewnowski, ed., Crisis in the East European Economy (London: Croom Helm, 1982), 158
21. Guardian (London), July 14, 1983, p. 19.
22. Alternative data based upon utilized national income are presented in Radio Liberty Research Bulletin RL 484/84, December 19, 1984; they show an annual average of 7.1% in 1966–1970, 5.1% in 1971–1975, 3.9% in 1976–1980, and 3.2% in 1981–1984. The complex methodological considerations involved in such calculations are considered in U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, USSR: Measures of Economic Growth and Development, 1950–80 (Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1982).
23. Pravda, January 29, 1984, p. 1, and January 25, 1985, p. 1.
24. Central Intelligence Agency, Handbook of Economic Statistics 1982 (Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1982), 42–43.
25. United Nations, World Economic Survey 1984 (New York: United Nations, 1984), 87.
26. Radio Free Europe Background Report: Eastern Europe No. 1, January 4, 1985; Financial Times, January 3, 1985, p. 2.
27. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Economic Survey of Europe in 1983 (New York: United Nations, 1984), 175.
28. See Walker Connor, Socialism, Politics and Equality (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).
29. On this last and somewhat controversial point, see, for instance, U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Soviet Economy in the 1980s: Problems and Prospects, 2 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1983), II, pp. 193–96 and elsewhere.
30. World Economic Survey 1984 (fn. 13), 1, 87–88.
31. See, for instance, Jan F. Triska and Charles Gati, eds., Blue-collar Workers in Eastern Europe (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982), esp. chap. 6.
32. See Archie Brown and Jack Gray, eds., Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1979).
33. This term is taken from W.J.M. Mackenzie's work on political adaptivity; see his Biological Ideas in Politics (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978), esp. chap. 6.
34. See Stephen White, John Gardner, and George Schöpflin, Communist Political Systems: An Introduction (London: Macmillan, 1982), 76.
35. A good general survey is available in George Sakwa and Martin Crouch, “Sejm Elections in Communist Poland: An Overview and a Reappraisal,” British Journal of Political Science 8 (October 1978), 403–24.
36. Trybuna Ludu, June 20, 1984, p. 1
37. “Elections to the People's Councils,” Poland Watch, No. 6 (1984), 13–21
38. Radio Free Europe Situation Report: Poland, Nos. 11 and 13, June 15 and July 1984, and No. 18, November 8, 1985.
39. See Theodore H. Friedgut, Political Participation in the USSR (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 145–47.
40. See Rigby and Feher (fn. 1), 41.
41. Otto Ulc, “Legislative Politics in Czechoslovakia,” in Daniel Nelson and Stephen White, eds., Communist Legislatures in Comparative Perspective (New York: SUNY at Albany Press, 1982), 116.
42. See C. Bradley Scharf, Politics and Change in East Germany (London: Pinter, 1984), 25–26.
43. In the 1982 elections in that country, only one voter is reported to have failed to endorse the single slate of candidates; see Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1983 (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1983), 237.
44. Nelson and White (fn. 28), 87
45. Scinteia, March 11, 1980, p. 1, and March 19, 1985, p. 1.
46. Cheng Zihua, “On China's Electoral Law,” Beijing Review 22 (September 14, 1979), 15–18
47. Guardian, November 1984, p. 7.
48. Also see Robert E. Bedeski, “Electoral Reform in China,” paper presented to the XIII IPSA Congress, Paris, 1985 (mimeo).
49. Radio Free Europe Situation Report: Hungary, June 21, 1985.
50. Radio Free Europe Background Report: Hungary, September 26, 1983
51. The Times (London) Higher Education Supplement, June 1, 1984, p. 8
52. Rudolf L. Tökés, “Hungarian Reform Imperatives,” Problems of Communism 33 (September–October 1984), 17.
53. See Nelson and White (fn. 28), and Daniel N. Nelson, ed., Local Politics in Communist Countries (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1980).
54. Reported in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1984 (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1984), 336.
55. See Scharf (fn. 29), 43
56. Scinteia, March 27, 1984, p. 3.
57. Ezhegodnik Bol'shoi Sovetskoi Entsiklopedii 1984 [Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia] (Moscow: Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, 1984), 12
58. Partiinaya zhizn', No. 15 (1983), 18.
59. Radio Free Europe Situation Report: Poland, June 11, 1984. However, “nearly 50 percent” of current recruits are reported to be workers. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts: Eastern Europe 7662/C/3, June 6, 1984.
60. Radio Free Europe Situation Report: Romania, No. 10, July 17, 1984
61. Pravda, November 20, 1984, p. 4.
62. See David Mason, “The Polish Party in Crisis, 1980–1982,” Slavic Review 43 (Spring 1984), 30–45
63. Z. Anthony Kruszewski, “The Communist Party during the 1980–81 Democratization of Poland,” in Jack Bielasiak and Maurice Simon, eds., Polish Politics: The Edge of the Abyss (New York: Praeger, 1984), 241–67.
64. In the Soviet case, for instance, the proportion of industrial workers on regional, territorial, and republican committees has increased from 27.8% in 1965–66 to 31.1% in 1980–81, with correspondingly higher numbers being recorded at lower levels of the party organization. See Voprosy istorii, No. 2 (1984), 4.
65. The Timers (London), January 22, 1985, p. 6
66. Pravda, April 18, 1985, p. 1.
67. Pravda, March 6, 1982, p. 2.
68. Pravda, June 19, 1983, pp. 1, 3.
69. Jan S. Adams, “Citizen Participation in Community Decisions in the USSR,” in Peter J. Potichnyj and Jan Shapiro Zacek, eds., Politics and Participation under Communist Rule (New York: Praeger, 1983), 178–95, at 188.
70. Guardian, November 26, 1984, p. 6
71. Radio Free Europe Background Report: Poland, No. 1, January 4, 1985
72. The Times (London), January 22, 1985, p. 6.
73. Radio Free Europe Situation Reports: Czechoslovakia, April 28, 1982; Romania, September 16, 1983, and March 14, 1984.
74. Richard C. Gripp, “Workers' Participation in Communist Politics,” in Donald E. Schulz and Jan S. Adams, eds., Political Participation in Communist Systems (New York: Praeger, 1981), 137–62, at 142–43.
75. See also Radio Free Europe Situation Reports: Hungary, January 12, 1984, December 21, 1983, and March 4, 1982.
76. Radio Free Europe Background Report: Bulgaria, No. 15, November 7, 1984.
77. Radio Free Europe Background Reports: Yugoslavia, No. 128, July 20, 1984, and No. 180, September 21, 1984.
78. Pravda, February 3, 1984, p. 2.
79. See Stephen White, “Political Communications in the USSR: Letters to Party, State and Press,” Political Studies 31 (January 1983), 43–60, at 51–57.
80. Godwin C. Chu and Leonard C. Chu, “Mass Media and Conflict Resolution: An Analysis of Letters to the Editor,” in Godwin C. Chu and Francis L.K. Hsu, eds., China's New Social Fabric (London: Kegan Paul, 1983), 176–77, 214.
81. The impact of such communications (for instance, on preventing the amalgamation of brigades of agricultural workers) is considered by John P. Burns, “Chinese Peasant Interest Articulation,” in David S. Goodman, ed., Groups and Politics in the People's Republic of China (Cardiff: University College Press, 1984), 126–51, esp. 134–36.
82. Radio Free Europe Situation Reports: Romania, June 14, 1984, and May 30, 1985.
83. See White (fn. 53), 57–60.
84. Stuart R. Schram, Ideology and Policy in China since the Third Plenum, 1978–84 (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1984), 24.
85. Scinteia, March 31, 1983, and March 28, 1984.
86. Mason (fn. 41), esp. p. 35.
87. Radio Free Europe Situation Report: Yugoslavia, No. 1, January 24, 1985.