Academic literature on the topic 'Post-communism – Belarus'

The revolution of 2020 in Belarus has often been described as a new 1989 and there is no doubt that the emancipatory appeal of the Belarusian protests is similar to the one that sustained the 1989 revolutions. But will building the democratic system—the major aspiration of the Belarusian protesters—follow the scripts of liberalization and westernization in evidence in other eastern and central European countries? Will self-determination in post-Lukashenka Belarus follow a scenario modelled on the patterns adopted by other east European and post-Soviet states, where ethnocentric national identities and the memory of victims of communism became distinctive markers of east European post-communism? Examining the symbolic dimension of the protest repertoire, this article demonstrates how the protests re-arranged the system of historical and cultural references that shaped the foundation of Belarusian collective memory and identity discourses since 1994. It reveals how a broad variety of actors engaged in contention activated a process of re-signification of cultural and political symbols and ideas and led to the formation of a blended socio-cultural imaginary, which integrates previously disconnected and competing projects and ideologies.

The subject of this research is the position of Belarus in the memory wars of Russia and Eastern European countries of the two recent decades. Based on P. Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power, as well as comparative analysis of the key stages of the historical politics of Russia and Belarus as the members of the Union State, the author explores the causes and peculiarities of electoral neutrality of Belarus in the memory wars of Russia and Eastern European countries. Analysis is conducted on the theoretical-methodological aspects of the concept of “memory wars”. Content analysis of the relevant research reveals the specificity of the Belarusian case with regards to correlation between domestic and foreign historical politics. The specificity of the forms of post-Communism that have established in Russia and Belarus, the difference in the pace of historical politics of the last three decades, as well as the evolution of the political regime of Alexander Lukashenko contributed to the formation of peculiar position of the Republic of Belarus in the memory confrontation between Russia and its Eastern European neighbors. The internal manifestation of such position was the desire to displace the conflicts between memory communities in the republic, the movement of memory to the periphery of cultural-information space, while the external manifestation was strive for electoral neutrality (memory isolationism) in the memory wars in Eastern Europe. Such position is aimed not so much at supporting Russia’s memory initiatives, but at solving the relevant political and economic challenges, using historical politics as the instrument for promoting the own interests.

Twenty years after the fall of communism in Europe, the post-Soviet countries have not achieved a similar stage of democratic development. They have shown to be too diverse and historically too independent to follow one path of consolidation. This volume questions the premises of transitology, homogeneity, and path dependency theories and suggests an insight into the continuities and discontinuities within particular contexts of the given countries (Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and others). The latter quite often collide with each other and with the Western democratic values, thus putting a concept of a harmonious dialogue or a definite democratic solution for Europe into doubt. This volume challenges one-directional analyses of both communism and capitalism and offers an examination of their inner contrasts and contradictions that are a part of transitions to democracy. The irreconcilable differences between the two systems of ideologies determined by universalisms, such as utilitarianism, liberalism, harmony, and productivity, were derived from the post-Enlightenment heritage of the humanist ideals which today cannot be acknowledged without criticism. To grasp the dynamics of the post-Soviet countries that are developing their own democratic models requires looking into their political struggles, social fissures and complexities within their past and present, rather than observing them from the epistemological standpoint. Such a standpoint is criticised in this volume for seeing those countries as locked in one homogenous totalitarian paradigm. The abstractness of the universalist and utopian concept of transition imposed on concrete social relations is criticised, while the theoriticisation of democratic ideals is related to the political legitimisation.

AbstractThis special issue focuses on the developments in ethical standards in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) including the former Soviet Union. Over thirty years have elapsed since the demise of the Soviet Bloc and, despite some common institutional features, the societies have had very different experiences with uneven developments across the region since the collapse of communism. In this special issue, the authors explore business and management ethics situated within the context of the challenges that face these still transforming post-communist societies. The papers cover a range of issues and countries including Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia. Potential further avenues for research are identified in the field of business ethics in post-communist societies.

Ajzenstat, Janet, Paul Romney, Ian Gentles and William D. Gairdner, eds. Canada's Founding Debates. By Alan Cairns 847Lazar, Harvey, ed. Canada: The State of the Federation 1999/2000: Toward a New Mission Statement for Canadian Fiscal Federalism. By Hugh Mellon 848Mouchon, Jean. La politique sous l'influence des médias; Monière, Denis. Démocratie médiatique et représentation politique: analyse comparative de quatre journaux télévisés : Radio-Canada, France 2, RTBF (Belgique) et TSR (Suisse); et Gingras, Anne-Marie. Médias et démocratie. Le grand malentendu. Par Maud Vuillardot 850Livingstone, D. W., D. Hart and L. E. Davie. Public Attitudes towards Education in Ontario 1998: The Twelfth OISE/UT Survey; and O'Sullivan, Edmund. Transformative Learning: Educational Vision for the 21st Century. By Benjamin Levin 853Perrier, Yvan et Raymond Robert. Savoir Plus : outils et méthodes de travail intellectuel. Par Veronique Bell 855Salazar, Debra J. and Donald K. Alper, eds. Sustaining the Forests of the Pacific Coast: Forging Truces in the War in the Woods. By Jeremy Rayner 856DeLuca, Kevin Michael. Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism. By Michael Howlett 857Beem, Christopher. The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life. By Loralea Michaelis 858Kennedy, Moorhead, R. Gordon Hoxie and Brenda Repland, eds. The Moral Authority of Government: Essays to Commemorate the Centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences. By Joseph M. Knippenberg 860Atkinson, Hugh and Stuart Wilks-Heeg. Local Government from Thatcher to Blair: The Politics of Creative Autonomy. By G. W. Jones 862Geoghegan, Patrick M. The Irish Act of Union: A Study in High Politics, 1798-1801. By Gary Owens 863Sabetti, Filippo. The Search for Good Government: Understanding the Paradox of Italian Democracy. By Grant Amyot 864Stein, Eric. Thoughts from a Bridge: A Retrospective of Writings on New Europe and American Federalism. By Manuel Mertin 866Janos, Andrew C. East Central Europe in the Modern World: The Politics of the Borderlands from Pre- to Post-Communism. By Paul G. Lewis 869Higley, John and Gyorgy Lengyel, eds. Elites after State Socialism: Theories and Analysis. By Marta Dyczok 870Lomnitz, Larissa Adler and Ana Melnick. Chile's Political Culture and Parties: An Anthropological Explanation. By Ken Roberts 872Itzigsohn, José. Developing Poverty: The State, Labor Market Deregulation, and the Informal Economy in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. By Andrew Schrank 873Davenport, Rodney and Christopher Saunders. South Africa: A Modern History. By Hermann Giliomee 875Matthes, Melissa M. The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics. By Lori J. Marso 877Gorham, Eric B. The Theater of Politics: Hannah Arendt, Political Science, and Higher Education. By Herman van Gunsteren 878Dodd, Nigel. Social Theory and Modernity. By J. C. Myers 879Sciabarra, Chris Matthew. Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism. By Paul Safier 881Sztompka, Piotr. Trust: A Sociological Theory. By Fiona M. Kay 882 Laugier, Sandra. Recommencer la philosphie. La philosophie américaine aujourd'hui. Par Dalie Giroux 884Bishop, John Douglas, ed. Ethics and Capitalism. By Raino Malnes 886Orend, Brian. War and International Justice: A Kantian Perspective. By Howard Williams 888Buchanan, Allen, Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler. From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice. By Travis D. Smith 889Young, Iris Marion. Inclusion and Democracy. By Jeff Spinner-Halev 891Shapiro, Ian and Stephen Macedo, eds. Designing Democratic Institutions. By John S. Dryzek 893O'Brien, Robert, Anne Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte and Marc Williams. Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements. By Stephen McBride 894Giddens, Anthony. Runaway World: How Globalization Is Reshaping Our Lives. By Trevor Salmon 896Haglund, David G., ed. Pondering NATO's Nuclear Options: Gambits for a Post-Westphalian World. By T.V. Paul 897Bertsch, Gary K. and William C. Potter, eds. Dangerous Weapons, Desperate States: Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan, and Ukraine. By Benjamin E. Goldsmith 898Shlaim, Avi. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. By Salim Mansur 900Aldecoa, Francisco and Michael Keating, eds. Paradiplomacy in Action: The Foreign Relations of Subnational Governments. By Hans J. Michelmann 901Davis, James W. Threats and Promises: The Pursuit of International Influence. By David Rousseau 903Lavoy, Peter R., Scott D. Sagan and James J. Wirtz, eds. Planning the Unthinkable: How New Powers Will Use Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons. By Greg Dinsmore 905

The work motivation construct is central to the theory and practice of many social science disciplines. Yet, due to the novelty of validated measures appropriate for a deep cross-national comparison, studies that contrast different administrative regimes remain scarce. This study represents an initial empirical effort to validate the Public Service Motivation (PSM) instrument proposed by Kim and colleagues (2013) in a previously unstudied context. The two former communist countries analyzed in this dissertation—Belarus and Poland— followed diametrically opposite development strategies: a fully decentralized administrative regime in Poland and a highly centralized regime in Belarus. The employees (n = 677) of public and nonprofit organizations in the border regions of Podlaskie Wojewodstwo (Poland) and Hrodna Voblasc (Belarus) are the subjects of study. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of public service motivation in the two regions: compassion, self-sacrifice, and attraction to public service. The statistical models tested in this dissertation suggest that nonprofit sector employees exhibit higher levels of PSM than their public sector counterparts. Nonprofit sector employees also reveal a similar set of values and work attitudes across the countries. Thus, the study concludes that in terms of PSM, employees of nonprofit organizations constitute a homogenous group that exists atop the administrative regimes. However, the findings propose significant differences between public sector agencies across the two countries. Contrary to expectations, data suggest that organization centralization in Poland is equal to—or for some items even higher than—that of Belarus. We can conclude that the absence of administrative decentralization of service provision in a country does not necessarily undermine decentralized practices within organizations. Further analysis reveals strong correlations between organization centralization and PSM for the Polish sample. Meanwhile, in Belarus, correlations between organization centralization items and PSM are weak and mostly insignificant. The analysis indicates other factors beyond organization centralization that significantly impact PSM in both sectors. PSM of the employees in the studied region is highly correlated with their participation in religious practices, political parties, or labor unions as well as location of their organization in a capital and type of social service provided.

Defence date: 13 February 2009
Examining board: Prof. Jaap Dronkers, EUI (Supervisor); Prof. Jean-Pascal Daloz, Oxford University; Prof. Arfon Rees, EUI; Prof. Iván Szelényi, Yale University
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This study looks into the post-communist pathways of the young functionaries of the Communist Youth League, the so-called Komsomol. The Komsomol can be regarded as an important stepping stone within the pathways into the communist elite. Given that these young functionaries eventually had to replenish the ranks of the established communist elite, the study proposes to conceptualize them as the prospective communist elite. It is this prospect of them becoming the communist elite that makes them so interesting to study: their position in the Komsomol signified that they were pre-selected possessors of the quality to strive for ‘good life’. Simultaneously however they are observed as people who desired to organize their accomplishment by following the rules of the game. However, with the breakdown of the communist regime this kind of career logic has abruptly declined. Against this background, the main research question is: ‘What happened to the former functionaries of the Komsomol in the course of the post-communist transformation, and why?’ This thesis attempts to shed light on questions of elite formation by drawing on retrospective accounts of insiders. These perspectives represent a previously hardly researched ‘other side’ of an experience that took place before and after the collapse of communism, an aspect which remains indispensable in understanding the post-communist development. Altogether 36 biographical in-depth interviews were carried out in 2005 with the Central Committee functionaries of the cohort of 1986-1989 in Lithuania. Interviews were also conducted with former functionaries in Belarus and utilized to facilitate the analysis of the Lithuanian data. The discussion of data is organized into two parts. The first empirical part deals with several aspects of the condition of the Komsomol functionaries at the moment of the exit from communism. This part outlines the main desires that motivate their decisions at this turbulent time; it also aims to explore the meaning of this moment in order to understand how it may have affected their lives. Was it a moment of loss? Or was it a moment of liberation? The second empirical part of the study explores the mobility of the former functionaries after the breakdown of communism. Here the study observes how the striving which initially propelled them into the communist structures was eventually converted within the post-communist structures. How did those people who were striving for ‘good life’ in the old system organise their accomplishment during post-communism? While the study represents an exploration into the subjective notions of accomplishment, it also proposes a reflection on how this process of subjective striving results in elite formation.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, many predicted there would be economic policy convergence, where it was assumed that the post-Soviet states would all transition into liberal-capitalist economies. Over twenty years later, these forecasts have been confounded by the wide divergence in the political-economic policy practices of the post-Soviet states, which has been particularly apparent between Latvia and Belarus. In terms of policy, Latvia made comprehensive liberal reforms to become a market economy and orient its policies close to Europe and away from Russia. Conversely, Belarus has taken a completely divergent path from Latvia, and has followed a consistent and clear pattern of behavior in regards to political-economic affairs, which could be described as being anti-liberal, anti-reform, and pro-Russian in orientation. Comparing Latvia and Belarus provides an excellent case study to build on International Relations, International Political Economy and Comparative Politics literature, because traditional theories have difficulty in explaining these states divergent policies. This dissertation uses political-cultural theoretical arguments to explain the divergent patterns of political-economic development between both countries, and builds on the rich body of multidisciplinary literature on cultural studies found within Social Constructivism to help understand the political-cultural context in which Latvia’s and Belarus’s policies were chosen. Specifically, this dissertation highlights that the predominant political-cultural worldviews in Latvia and Belarus, were shaped by the historic religious-cultural environment in which these states were situated, which have had a central influence on the patterns of domestic political-economic development chosen by each country since 1991. Additionally, this dissertation also shows that such worldviews had important implications for international relations, in that Latvia being historically situated in the sphere of Western Christian culture gravitated towards the West and away from the Russia, while Belarus being historically situated predominantly in the cultural sphere of Russian Orthodox Christianity was more naturally prone to gravitate towards closer relations with Russia, and away from Western Europe. This is important in pointing to the prime influence of religious-cultural worldviews in shaping political-economic behavior. In doing so my work addresses many gaps left by previous theoretical explanations on post-Soviet transformation. In terms of policy implications, the findings will have a wider applicability in helping to understand the types of political-economic development policies that are chosen by other states in post-Communist, post-authoritarian, and post-colonial contexts, which are experiencing extensive transformation and integration into the global economy.

This chapter highlights how the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union initiated a new period in the history of the Jews in the area. Poland was now a fully sovereign country, and Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Moldova also became independent states. Post-imperial Russia faced the task of creating a new form of national identity. This was to prove more difficult than in other post-imperial states since, unlike Britain and France, the tsarist empire and its successor, the Soviet Union, had not so much been the ruler of a colonial empire as an empire itself. All of these countries now embarked, with differing degrees of enthusiasm, on the difficult task of creating liberal democratic states with market economies. For the Jews of the area, the new political situation allowed both the creation and development of Jewish institutions and the fostering of Jewish cultural life in much freer conditions, but also facilitated emigration to Israel, North America, and western Europe on a much larger scale.