Winner of the Social Science History Association
President’s Book Award
East Germany was the first domino to fall when the Soviet bloc began to
collapse in 1989. Its topple was so swift and unusual that it caught many area
specialists and social scientists off guard; they failed to recognize the
instability of the Communist regime, much less its fatal vulnerability to
popular revolt. In this volume, Steven Pfaff identifies the central mechanisms
that propelled the extraordinary and surprisingly bloodless revolution within
the German Democratic Republic (GDR). By developing a theory of how exit-voice
dynamics affect collective action, Pfaff illuminates the processes that
spurred mass demonstrations in the GDR, led to a peaceful surrender of power
by the hard-line Leninist elite, and hastened German reunification. While most
social scientific explanations of collective action posit that the option for
citizens to emigrate—or exit—suppresses the organized voice of collective
public protest by providing a lower-cost alternative to resistance, Pfaff
argues that a different dynamic unfolded in East Germany. The mass exit of
many citizens provided a focal point for protesters, igniting the insurgent
voice of the revolution.
Pfaff mines state and party records, police reports, samizdat, Church
documents, and dissident manifestoes for his in-depth analysis not only of the
genesis of local protest but also of the broader patterns of exit and voice
across the entire GDR. Throughout his inquiry, Pfaff compares the East German
rebellion with events occurring during the same period in other communist
states, particularly Czechoslovakia, China, Poland, and Hungary. He suggests
that a trigger from outside the political system—such as exit—is necessary to
initiate popular mobilization against regimes with tightly centralized power
and coercive surveillance.
Steven Pfaff is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, Seattle.
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Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Exit-Voice Dynamics and Collective Action
2. Blocked Voice, Demobilization, and the Crisis of East German Communism
3. No Exit: The Niche Society and the Limits of Coercive Surveillance
4. Dona Nobis Pacem: Political Subculturers, the Church, and the Birth of
Dissident Voice
5. Triggering Insurgent Voice: The Existing Crisis and the Rebellion against
Communism
6. Fight or Flight?: A Statistical of Exit-Voice Dynamics in the East German
Revolution
7. Why Was There No "Chinese Solution" in the GDR?
8. Activists of the First Hour: New Forum and the Mobilization of Reformist
Voice
9. Reunification as the Collective Exit from Socialism
Conclusion
Appendix: Quantitative Data and the Statistical Analysis of Country-Level
Exit and Voice Relationships
Notes
Bibliography
Index
352 pages, 10 tables, 17 figures
ISBN 0-8223-3752-4, $84.95 cloth
ISBN 0-8223-3765-7, $23.95 paperback