Is Cuba Different? Regime Stability, Social Change, and the Problem of Reform Strategy

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Pickel
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Regime Stability ◽  
Reform Strategy ◽  
European Experience

The survival of socialism in Cuba eight years after the collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe has come as a surprise to many observers. This analysis surveys Cuba's current economic, political and social conditions, discusses regime stability and reform pressures in light of the Eastern European experience, and identifies the major processes and sources of social change. The same factors that account for the survival of the regime—charismatic leadership and the fusion of nationalism and socialism, reinforced by a confrontationist US foreign policy—open a window of opportunity for an approach to fundamental reform that could avoid the costs of both neoliberal radicalism and political immobilism. The analysis concludes by sketching the main elements of such an alternative reform strategy.

Out of Eastern Europe

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Subotić
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
The Political ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Political Challenge

What is the contribution of Eastern European scholarship to the study of human rights and transitional justice? This essay takes stock of the most significant empirical and theoretical contributions of the study of Eastern Europe, specifically the study of the difficult case of the former Yugoslavia, to the scholarship on transitional justice. I identify three main challenges the scholarship on the former Yugoslavia has presented to the larger field of transitional justice: the political challenge of multiple overlapping transitions, the inability of international institutions to effect domestic social change, and the dangers of politicization of past violence remembrance.

scholarly journals Societal transformation: Eastern European experience and conceptualization

2021 ◽  
pp. 223386592110055
Author(s):  
Nikolai Genov
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Societal Transformation ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
European Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
The Impact

The paper contains analyses of attempts at explaining the profound changes in Eastern Europe after 1989. The analyses are guided by the conceptual framework of social interaction. It covers the micro, meso and macro level of the social organization. The first target is the theory of transition. The diagnosis reveals some constructive features of the theory together with its difficulties to get operationalized and effectively used in explanations. The major deficit of the theory is the absence of a concept of society. Based on the concept of social interaction the conceptual framework of societal transformation efficiently functions as a heuristic tool and as an organizer of knowledge. Is the societal transformations conceptual framework sufficient for a full-fledged explanation of the reform processes in Eastern Europe? The search for an answer leads to increasing relevance of the region’s involvement in the globalization. The conclusion is that the impact of global trends should be integrated in the explanatory procedures of the continuing transformation of Eastern European societies.

Moral Renewal: The Lessons of Eastern Europe

1991 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Nardin
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Common Humanity ◽  
Moral Diversity ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
European Experience ◽  
The Individual

Nardin uses the Eastern European experience of the late 1980s and the works of Adam Michnik and Vaclav Havel to demonstrate the traditional cosmopolitan Kantian notion of morality in the “appeal to universal human values.” Nardin uses three major elements to argue the impossibility of such a concept: “the law of nature,” based on Stoic and Judeo-Christian foundation, focusing on reason and rationality of the individual rather than custom or divine authority; the uniqueness of various cultures challenging the universal “cosmopolitan” outlook on morality; and the differences among universal principles of morality relative to personal human experiences throughout time. Nardin concludes that the moral renewal in Eastern Europe is evidence that destructive consequences of moral diversity do not preclude a civil society once agreements on authoritative principles and laws are institutionalized. Each individual's own ethical conduct and internal moral guidance offer the basis for criticism and reform of law through membership in particular communities and common humanity.

Budgeting in Socio-economic Development Strategies (Raising a Problem)

2008 ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
A. Shastitko ◽  
M. Ovchinnikov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Economic Development Strategies

The article proposes an approach to the analysis of social change and contributes to the clarification of concepts of economic policy. It deals in particular with the notion of "change of system". The author considers positive and normative aspects of the analysis of capitalist and socialist systems. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the system to be changed are introduced, their fulfillment is discussed drawing upon the historical and statistical data. The article describes both economic and political peculiarities of the transitional period in different countries, especially in Eastern Europe.

Local Government Budgeting: The Central and Eastern European Experience

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Mihály Hőgye ◽  
Charles McFerren
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
European Experience

Capital Switching and the Role of Ground Rent: 1 Theoretical Problems

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J King
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Rent Extraction ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Speculative Investment ◽  
Capital Switching

The flow of both productive and speculative investment into housing relates to the state of capital accumulation in other economic sectors, as hypothesised in the ‘circuits of capital’ argument, but it also relates to the incentive to ‘switch’ investment into and out of housing, and therefore to expectations of ground rent and the (changing) social conditions that enable ground rent extraction. This is the first of three papers in which the relationships involved in these processes are explored. A series of theoretical problems arising from the argument are dealt with, principally relating to its seeming economic determinism and to an inappropriately narrow treatment of crisis and social change. In the subsequent papers, in this journal, these various ideas will be used to reflect on housing market and related social change in Melbourne from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Looking at European Sports from an Eastern European Perspective: Football in the Multi-ethnic Polish Territories

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-610
Author(s):  
Anke Hilbrenner ◽  
Britta Lenz
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Initial Phase ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Sports History ◽  
East European ◽  
Slow Diffusion ◽  
Sporting Culture ◽  
New Research

Until recently, sports history has largely neglected Eastern Europe. Yet new research has shown that historians need to embrace a perspective from the periphery towards the centre, and reach beyond the paradigms of modernization, Sovietization, and the nation-state if Europe's sporting culture is to be fully understood. Focusing primarily on Poland, this article outlines three features peculiar to the region. First, it stresses the importance of trans-national spaces and networks as well as European sub-regions. Missing out on the initial phase of sport's internationalization due to lack of independence, the development of Polish sport was regionally distinct. Sports flourished in Habsburg-ruled Galicia (in Cracow and Lodz especially) under relatively liberal political authorities, but developed more slowly and under different influences elsewhere. Second, the prominence of rural Galicia, inhabited by traditional groups such as Ukrainian peasants or Chassidic Jews, shows that Polish sport did not evolve in line with modernization and industrialization. The relatively slow diffusion of sport in industrial centres such as Warsaw or Silesia contradicts the paradigm of modernization and the notion of East European backwardness. Third, sport history sheds light on phenomena such as multi-ethnicity, migration, integration or disintegration.

The Christianisation of the eastern European Steppe peoples

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-208
Author(s):  
Jarosław Dudek
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Nomadic Communities

This paper examines the difficulties experienced in bringing Christianity to the peoples of eastern Europe in the early Middle Ages and beyond. In focus are the problems and processes of converting the Eurasian nomads who appeared in the steppes of eastern Europe. The research reveals that the success of missionary activity from various Christian denominations (often associated with trade activities) depended upon the receptiveness of the leaders of nomadic communities. A number of examples from various communities are provided.

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