Introduction: An Approach to Studying Communist Politics

Abstract

Analysts of communist systems are very often wrong in their assessments of what is ‘going on’ and/or their predictions of what is likely to happen. The emergence of Solidarity, Chernenko’s succession of Andropov, the level of and rate of growth in Soviet military spending, the degree to which Maoism would outlast Mao, the survivability of Yugoslavia after Tito — these are but a few of the major changes in communist party states about which many analysts have erred.