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THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EASTERN EUROPE

REES 396/397, ANTHRO 317, SLAVIC 396 / HISTORY 333 / POLSCI 396 / SOC 393.

Winter Term 2004, T-Th 10-11:30, 418 West Hall

 

Professor Katherine Verdery

            The year 1989 saw the sudden end of Communist Party rule in six Eastern Europe countries where most had thought it impregnable a short while before; at the same time, the position of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia became increasingly uncertain.  Within two years both of those countries had disintegrated, and Party rule had also collapsed in Albania.  In some places the collapse was orderly, negotiated, and peaceful; in others it was violent and bloody.  Although many observers had pointed for some time to difficulties in these societies, virtually no one had predicted so rapid an end to "Communism" in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.  It seemed that “the Party was over.” 

 

            Or was it?  Within five years, almost all of the countries in which socialism was overthrown saw the socialist parties come back to power via democratic elections.  The reforms put into place by the first non-communist governments were now often blocked or slowed.  This baffled many analysts and observers.  The same people who failed to predict the end of socialism and who had triumphantly declared that market democracy was the inevitable future of Eastern Europe were at a loss to explain why the socialists were regaining power.  Meanwhile, in the Balkans and in parts of the former Soviet Union, wars that few outsiders understood were taking a bloody toll. 

 

            In this course we will examine the conditions that led state socialism to collapse and will look at subsequent changes in these countries.  We begin with the historical context and political economy of state socialist societies, focusing on the main organizational characteristics of the socialist system as it existed before 1989.  We will also cover the "revolutions" of 1989.  In the remainder of the course we will take up different aspects of life in the region, focusing on the social impact of the dramatic changes that have occurred.

 

READING ASSIGNMENTS

            The reading for the course is multidisciplinary, taken from anthropology, history, sociology, political science, and economics.  We will focus mainly on Eastern Europe, but some of the reading deals with the former Soviet Union.  Several books have been ordered for purchase at Shaman Drum bookstore; most will be read more or less in their entirety and are thus recommended for individual purchase, while the others can be bought by 2-3 students and used collectively.  In the former category are Beck et al’s History of Eastern Europe, Slavenka Drakulić's How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, Stephen White’s Communism and Its Collapse, and Hupchick’s Concise Atlas of Eastern Europe. (Of these, Drakulić and White will be read across a fairly long period and could be shared among 2-3 people.)  You are assigned about half of Stokes's The Walls Came Tumbling Down  and have two weeks to read it, so it too could be shared.  My book What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? and Walter Adams and James Brock's Adam Smith Goes to Moscow have been ordered as recommended; a couple of chapters will be read from each. 

 

        The rest of the reading is in the form of articles on electronic reserve and/or regular reserve, and in a couple of coursepacks available from Accu-Copy on William St.  A few papers will be made available on the CourseTools site (coursetools.ummu.umich.edu), where we will also post the syllabus, announcements, etc.  Many of the journal articles can be found in electronic format (see bibliography for URLs). NOTE: In the list of assignments, items in the course pack are marked (cp); those marked (er) are on electronic reserve; those marked (e) are available electronically from the website listed in the bibliography; those marked (c-t) are on the Course Tools site for this course; and those with (r) are on regular reserve.

         It is critical that you do the reading before each week’s Tuesday class, so you will be able to complete the exercises we have planned and contribute to discussion; spot quizzes will encourage you to do so. 

 

REQUIREMENTS

            Course requirements include class attendance and participation, two required films, a geography quiz, some spot quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam.    Class attendance is in your interest, since there is sometimes little overlap between lectures/discussion and reading, and the two exams will presume knowledge of both .  The Tues-Thurs 10-11:30 class time will be used primarily for lecture during the first part of the course; the balance will shift toward class discussion in the second half.  Your participation in these discussions, as well as in your weekly section meeting, will affect your grade. 

            In addition, you will be asked to team up with one other person and spend some time following the news from the region through Internet (to be explained during the first week of class).  Countries you may choose to follow include Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.  With a partner, select two of these countries and follow the news about them, submitting a brief report each month that compares what is going on in them.

            Final grades will be calculated as follows:  midterm 25%, quizzes and news reports 20%, class participation/discussion 20%, final exam 35%. 

 

 

                            WEEKLY COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS

 

            In addition to the assignments below, please be reading the electronic news as noted above.

 

        Note: Throughout the first few weeks, read Drakulić, How We Survived Communism.  This is designed to give you a personal feel for life under socialism; you should finish it by the midterm.

 

 

**PLEASE READ THE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE ORDER LISTED**

Please read as noted by the dates indicated, to facilitate getting the most out of class time

 

Dates          Topic

Jan. 6       Introductory comments. 

 

I. BACKGROUND

 

 

Jan.  8    Brief Historical Background

                    Assignment:   Beck et al., History of Eastern Europe  Read as far as p. 102 only.

                                    Hupchick, Concise Atlas.  Go through all maps carefully; read around in text.

 

 

Jan. 13/15  Historical Background (cont) and The Cold War

                        Assignment:  for Jan 13:  Beck et al. pp. 102-120.

                                    Rothschild, Return to Diversity, ch 1. (r, er)

                        For Jan. 15:  Whitfield, Culture of the Cold War, pp. 27-58, 77-82, 101-113, 127-131, 187-192, 231-241 (cp, r).
**PLEASE READ THE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE ORDER LISTED**

 

Jan. 20/22   Political Economy of Socialism, I

                        Assignment: MUST read these three for Tues class, Jan 20:

                                    Crampton, Eastern Europe in the 20th Century, ch. 14 (cp).

                                    Verdery, What Was Socialism, ch. 1, pp. 19-35. (cp, er, r)

                                    Sampson, "The second economy..." (er)

                            For Jan 22:  White, Communism and Its Collapse,  chs. 1-2                

                   Begin reading Drakulić.  (NOTE: This is an extremely readable, funny book designed to give you a personal feel for life under socialism.)

 

 

Jan 27/29    Political Economy of Socialism, II

                        Assignment:  White, chs. 3-5.

                                    Szakolczai and Horvath, "Information management."  Skim 268- 272,

                                       read 273-294 (er) 

                          Finish reading Drakulić

Jan 28  Recommended film: "Divided We Fall," Czech, made 1996.  Angell Hall Aud A, 7:00 pm.

 

 

***—> Due Feb 2: First news report***

 

Feb. 3/5 and Feb 10   The Revolutions of 1989

                        Assignment:  Read the following for the next three classes, beginning with Stokes. There is some overlap between them; this will help you consolidate your knowledge.

                                    Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling Down, 46-68, 87-101, 131-167 (r, er)

                                    White, chs 6-8.

                                    Beck et al. 118-123.

 

 

FEB. 12       MIDTERM EXAM 

 

II. SELECTED TOPICS

 

Feb. 17/19   Post-Socialist "Civil Society" and the Return of the Left

                        For Feb. 17:  Beck pp. 124-145.

                                    Havel and Klaus, "Rival Visions" (URL in bibliography)

                                    Creed, "The Politics of Agriculture in Bulgaria" (e)

                        For Feb. 19: 

                                    Wallace-Lorencová, "Queering Civil Society in Postsocialist Slovakia" (cp)

                                    Sampson, “Social Life of Projects” (er)

 

 

Feb 24/26   Winter Break

 

 

Mar 2/4 Making Private Property, I:  Changed Organizations of Industry

                        For Mar 2:  Holmes, Post-Communism, pp. 210-223  (er)

                                    Dunn, Privatizing Poland,  Sections TBA (c-t).

                         For Mar 4:  Adams and Brock, Adam Smith Goes to Moscow, read chapters

                                    1 and 4, and from first "Prime Minister"  on p. 149 to 151 (cp, r).

 

***—> Due Mar 8: Second news report***

 

Mar. 9/11  Making Private Property, II:  Changed Relations in Agriculture

                        For Mar 9:  Verdery, What Was Socialism, ch. 6 (read to page 159)

                                    Swain, “Getting Land in Central Europe”  (er)  

                        For Mar 11:  Verdery,“Seeing Like a Mayor” (er, c-t)   

                                    Thelen, "The New Power of Old Men" (cp)

 

 

 Mar. 16/18  Getting By in the New Order, with emphasis on gender

                For Mar 16: Verdery, What Was Socialism, ch. 7 (read to p.193; skim rest) (r, er)

                        For Mar 18, read at least three of these six (many are quite short):

Burawoy et al, "Involution and Destitution..."  (cp)

Hervouet, "Dachas and Vegetable Gardens in Belarus" (c-t) 

Keough, "Driven Women: Reconceptualizing the Traffic in Women..."  (cp)

Lindquist, "Selling and Buying Power: The Economy of a Magic Center in

            Moscow" (cp)

Luehrmann, "Foreign Relations: Internet Matchmaking..." (c-t)

Stukuls, "Body of the Nation..."  Concentrate on pp. 549-558.  See URL in bibliography, or go to Library's Electronic Resources and click on Slavic Review.

                        Review Drakulić, chapter 13.

 

 

Mar. 22/25 National Conflict: The Yugoslav Wars  Special class session Monday evening with Tone Bringa, specialist on the wars in Bosnia.  7:00-9:00 pm.  No Tues class

                   NOTE on reading: the Yugoslav situation is very complicated and involves a lot of unfamiliar names.  If you read the assignments in this order, I think it will help.  Please start with the handout with info about Yugoslavia.

                For Mar. 22 [PLEASE NOTE THE DATE]: Hupchick, Atlas: Closely study maps 47, 49,     51, and 52. and read the text.

                        Beck et al, History of Eastern Europe, Review pp. 108-9, read 146-171

                                    Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling Down, chapter 7 (purchase, or cp).

                        For Mar. 25: Kurspahic, Prime Time Crime, pp. 61-104, 209-219 (cp).

 

 

Mar. 30/Apr.1  Making Markets and Capitalist Consumers

                        For Mar 30: Dunn, “Slick Salesmen and Simple People” (er)

 Mandel, "A Marshall Plan for the Mind: The Political Economy of a Kazakh Soap Opera" (er)   

                        For Apr 1: Harper, “Citizens or Consumers?” (er)

                                    Berdahl, “Consumer Rites"  (er)”  (c-t, er)  OR Creed, "(Consumer) Paradise Lost...  (cp)

                        Review Drakulic chs. 2-3

 

           

Apr. 6/8  The Fate of Culture in the New Eastern Europe.

                        Reading TBA

April 9: Required film, "Before the Rain," Macedonian, Angell Hall Aud A, 7:00 pm.

 

***—>Due Apr. 12: Third news report***

 

 

Apr. 13/15   Eastward Enlargement of the European Union

For Apr 13: Wilson, "An Anthropology of the European Union." (cp)

Drulák, Česal, and Hampl, "Interactions and Identities of Czech Civil Servants..."  (cp)             

For Apr 15:  Dunn, "Trojan Pig." (c-t)

Kovacs, "Putting Down and Putting Off: The EU's Discursive Strategies..." (e)                   http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~eu/Empire.pdf, pp.  196-234

 

Apr 19.  Recommended film: "White,"  Polish.  Angell Hall aud A, 7:00 pm.

 

Apr 20.  Final class: Wrap-up and Review

 

APR. 29, 10:30-12:30 (THURSDAY)   FINAL EXAMINATION

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Adams, Walter, and James W. Brock

  1993   Adam Smith Goes to Moscow: A Dialogue on Radical Reform.  Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

Beck, Paul, Edward Mast, and Perry Tapper

  1997   The History of Eastern Europe for Beginners.  NY: Writers and Readers, Inc.

Berdahl, Daphne

  1997   Consumer Rites: The Politics of Consumption in Re-Unified Germany. MS.

Burawoy, Michael, Pavel Krotov, and Tatyana Lytkina

  2000   Involution and Destitution in Capitalist Russia.  Ethnography 1 (1): 43-63.

Crampton, R. J.

  1994  Eastern Europe in the Tewntieth Century—and After.  London: Routledge.

Creed, Gerald

  1995   The Politics of Agriculture in Bulgaria.  Slavic Review 54: 843-68.  To Access this article online: http://www.econ.uiuc.edu/~slavrev.  Find/click on "Slavic Review On-Line," then "Winter 1995."

  2002  (Consumer) Paradise Lost: Capitalist Dynamics and Disenchantment in Rural Bulgaria.  Anthropology of East Europe Review  [henceforth AEER] 20: 119-125.

Drakulić, Slavenka

  1991   How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.  NY: Harper.

Drulák, Petr, Jiři Česal and Stanislav Hampl

  2003  Interactions and Identities of Czech Civil Servants on Their Way to the EU. Journal of European Public Policy 10:4 August 2003:637-654.

Dunn, Elizabeth

  2003  Privatizing Poland.  Book MS.

  2003  Trojan Pig: Paradoxes of Food Safety Regulation, MS, pp 1-27.

Harper, Krista

  1999   Citizens or Consumers? Environmentalism and the Public Sphere in Postsocialist Hungary.  Radical History Review 74: 96-111.

Havel, Vaclav, and Vaclav Klaus

 1996    Rival Visions.  Journal of Democracy 7 (1).

            http://80-muse.jhu.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/journals/jod/.

Hervouet, Ronan

  2003  Dachas and Vegetable Gardens in Belarus: Economic and Subjective Stakes of an 'Ordinary Passion.'  AEER 21: 1-15.

Holmes, Leslie

  1997   Post-Communism: An Introduction.  Duke Univ. Press.

Hupchick, Dennis P., and Harold E. Cox

   2001   The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe.  Palgrave, 2001.

Keough, Leyla J.

   2003   "Driven Women: Reconceptualizing the Traffic in Women in the Margins of Europe through the Case of the Gagauz Mobile Domestics in Istanbul."  AEER 21: 73-80.Kovacs, Melinda

  2001   Putting Down and Putting Off: The EU's Discursive Strategies in the 1998 and 1999Follow-up Reports. In Böröcz, Jószef and Melinda Kovács (eds.) Empire's New Clothes: Unveiling EU Enlargement.      http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~eu/Empire.pdf, pp.  196-234

Lindquist, Galina

 2003  Selling and Buying Power: The Economy of a Magic Center in Moscow.  In Everyday Economy in Russia, Poland and Latvia, ed. K-O. Arnstberg and T Borén, 53-70

Luehrmann, Sonja

  2002  Foreign Relations: Internet Matchmaking and the Value of International Connections in Provincial Russia.  MS.

Mandel, Ruth

  2002  A Marshall Plan for the Mind: The Political Economy of a Kazakh Soap Opera.  In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain, ed. Faye D. Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin.  Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

 Rothschild, Joseph

  1989   Return to Diversity.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sampson, Steven

  1987   The Second Economy in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.  Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 493: 120-136.

  1996   The Social Life of Projects: Importing Civil Society to Albania.  In Civil Society, ed. C.M. Hann and E.C. Dunn, pp.121-142.  London: Routledge.

Stokes, Gale

  1993   The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.  Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Stukuls, Daina

  1999   Body of the Nation: Mothering, Prostitution, and Women's Place in Postcommunist Latvia.  Slavic Review 58 (3): 537-558.  http://80-www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/browse/ 00376779/di021451?frame=noframe&userID=8dd3af8b@umich.edu/018dd553400050ea9c80&dpi=3&config=jstor  [You may need to be at a university computer to access this URL].

Swain, Nigel

  1996   Getting Land in Central Europe.  In After Socialism, ed. Ray Abrahams.  Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Szakolczai, Arpád, and Agnes Horváth

  1991   Information Management in Bolshevik-type Party-states: A Version of the Information Society.  East European Politics and Societies 5: 268-305.

Thelen, Tatjana

  2003  The New Power of Old Men: Privatization and Family Relations in Mesterszállás (Hungary).  AEER 21:15-21.

Verdery, Katherine

  1996   What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next?  Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

  2002   Seeing Like a Mayor, or How Local Officials Obstructed Romanian Land Restitution.  MS.

Wallace-Lorencová, Viera

  2003  Queering Civil Society in Postsocialist Slovakia.  AEER 21:103-11.

White, Stephen

  2000   Communism and its Collapse.  NY: Routledge.