Central and Eastern Europe: Europeanization and Social Change

ISBN-13: 9780230607712 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 248 str.

Francois Bafoil

Opis

The collapse of communism in 1989 paved the way for the reunification of the continent. For Eastern European countries, the reaffirmation of their political, economic and social independence took place simultaneously within a context marked by globabization and the rules of the European union. This book analyses the impact of the different dynamics of change since 1989 on public policy and on various economic and political sectors. The author's approach is elaborated in terms of strategies, conflicts, alliances and resources anchored in the communist period, sometimes even before, and revitalized by the new rules of the game. He studies the way in which national traditions of sovereignty within the new States combined with 21st century economic and political liberalism. By emphasizing the intensity and rapidity of the dynamics of change which have taken place since 1989, the author shows both the new States' ability to adopt global and European rules and their determination to subscribe fully to the Europe of today.

Recenzje

"Bafoil s book combines an empirically rich and theoretically valid analysis of the impact of the European Union on the Central and Eastern European states. A significant and stimulating contribution to understanding the process of Europeanization and social change in the new member states." - Wolfgang Wessels, Jean Monnet Chair, University of Cologne

"This ambitious attempt at analysis of today s Central and Eastern Europe covers a very broad area of issues concerning politics, economies and societies put in comparative perspective. The author, a well-known specialist on these problems, provides a theoretical framework which makes his arguments very convincing. The basis of François Bafoil s thinking is that history and local trajectories of development do matter. Only by taking them into account might we be able to understand how countries of Central and Eastern Europe confront modernization and "Europeanization". The interplay between past and present, between local and global, is fundamental here. This book is addressed to a broader audience willing to understand better today s enlarging Europe and to specialists who might learn how modern social sciences may help this understanding." - Andrzej Rychard, Professor of Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Spis treści

Introduction: Modernization, Europeanization and Path Dependency The Legacies. Picture of a Political Economy of Soviet-Style Socialism PART I: THE FORMATION OF THE CENTRAL STATES: THE REFORMS OF OWNERSHIP, SOCIAL WELFARE AND ADMINISTRATION Privatization and the Formation of East European States The Reforms of the Welfare States Regionalization Reforms and the Redistribution of Powers between Central and Regional Actors PART I: SOCIETIES AND MARKETS. WORKERS, PEASANTS, LABOUR UNIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Workers and Managers. Local Compromises and the End of the Working Classes The Agricultural Question. Public Laissez-faire and the Recomposition of Individual Strategies Labor Relations. The Weakness of the Social Dialogue Civil Societies. Networks of Sociability, Associations, and Public Debates The Development of the Social Structures and the Formation of New Cleavages

O autorze

FRANÇOIS BAFOIL is a Senior Research Fellow (CNRS) at CERI-Sciences Po, France.