Stability and Change in Eastern Europe

The longevity of the East European Communist systems—they have lasted over 35 years—poses a serious question: what are the sources of social stability and legitimacy in these societies? In the late ’40s and early ’50s most specialists assumed that, except for Yugoslavia and perhaps Albania, these systems were inherently unstable and indeed illegitimate. We further postulated (omitting conscious and unconscious apologists for a “socialism without a human face”) that what ultimately kept these systems in power was the sheer degree of repression available to the local elites, reinforced by the Soviet Union’s willingness to intervene massively to preserve the existing order in its bailiwick.

By the &#...