Abstract
Political life in communist states rarely has been assessed from the viewpoint of provinces, counties, towns and villages which are far removed both geographically and psychologically from the more recognizable foci of Western journalism such as the Kremlin or Tienanmen Square. This chapter arises from a conviction that the successes or failures of communist governments at local levels, where contact with the citizenry is most frequent and most salient, will be a key determinant of the long-term prognosis for such systems.
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Notes
V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution (New York: International Publishers, 1968) p. 41.
Todor Zhivkov, ‘Report of the Central Committee to the Eleventh Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party’ in By and For the People (New York: New World Review Press, 1977) p. 84.
Nicolae Ceausescu, ‘Cuvintare la plenarâ comitetului Central al Partidului Comunist Român din 28 Februar-2 Martie, 1973’ in România pe drumul construirai societatii socialiste multilateral dezvoltate, vol. 8 (Bucuresti: Editurà politica, 1973).
E. Gierek, ‘The Reform Serves to Consolidate Basic Principles of Socialist Society’, Trybuna Ludu (13 May 1975).
Sylwester Zawadski, ‘Directions and Methods of Research on People’s Councils’ in Problemy Rad Narodowych, no. 1, 1964.
Fidel Castro, ‘Speech at the Closing Session of the National Plenary Meeting of Basic Industry’, Gramma Weekly Review (20 Dec. 1970) p. 2.
See James R. Townsend’s excellent discussion of the ‘mass line’ concept in Political Participation in Communist China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969) pp. 72–4.
Alfred Meyer discusses the problem of initial legitimacy in ‘Authority in Communist Political Systems’ in L. J. Edinger (ed.), Political Leadership in Industrial Societies (N.Y.: Wiley, 1967) p. 84.
M. A. Suslov, ‘Important Tasks of Village and Township Soviets’, Pravda (27 Nov. 1970).
N. Ceausescu, ‘Cuvintare…’ in Conferinta pe Tara a Secretarilor Comitetelor de Partid si a Presidintilor Consiliilor Populare Comunale (Bucuresti: Supliment al revistei ’’Probleme ale Consiliilor Populare’, 1971) p. 21.
The Program is translated in S. Pribechevich, Yugolavia’s Way (New York: All Nation Press, 1958) ch. X, pp. 230ff.
Michael P. Gehlen and Michael McBride, ‘The Soviet Central Committee: an Elite Analysis’, The American Political Science Review 62, no. 4 (Dec. 1968)
reprinted in Joseph L. Nogee (ed.), Man, State and Society in the Soviet Union (N.Y. Praeger, 1972) p. 122.
K. Ostrowski and A. Przeworski, ‘Local Leadership in Poland’, The Polish Sociological Bulletin, no. 2 (1967) p. 65.
See D. N. Nelson, ‘Background Characteristics of Local Communist Elites’, Polity (spring 1978).
Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, The Communist Party Apparatus (Cleveland, Ohio: Meridian, 1968) p. 68.
Carl Beck, Gerard A. Johnson and J. Thomas McKechnie, ‘Party Careers: a Case Study of Bulgarian Central Committee Members, 1962’ in Roger E. Kanet (ed.), The Behavioral Revolution and Communist Studies (N.Y.: Free Press, 1971) pp. 187–203.
V. I. Lenin, On Party Construction (Moscow, 1965) pp. 428–29.
Jerry Hough, The Soviet Prefects (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969).
V. C. Falkenheim, ‘County Administration in Fukien’, The China Quarterly (July-September 1974) p. 540.
See Ion Vîntu, Mircea Anghene and Mircea Straoanu, Organele Administratiei de Stat in Republica Socialista Romania, op. cit.; WacIaw Dawidowicz, Zarys ustroju organ6w administracji terytorialnej w Polsce (Warszawa: Padstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1976)
D. Schejbal and O. Zurek, ‘Methods of Achieving Consistency Between National and Regional Location Plans’ in Industrial Location and Regional Development (N.Y.: United Nations, 1968) pp. 381–408.
Roy E. H. Mellor, Eastern Europe: a Geography of the Comecon Countries (N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1975) pp. 254–65.
Frederick C. Teiwes, ‘Provincial Politics in China’ in John M. H. Lindbeck (ed.), China: Management of a Revolutionary Society (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1971) pp. 174–8.
Vahakn N. Dadrian, ‘Nationalism in Soviet Armenia—a Case Study of Ethnocentrism’, in G. W. Simmonds (ed.), Nationalism in the USSR and Eastern Europe (Detroit: University of Detroit Press, 1977) p. 202.
For a thorough discussion of this event, and Hungarians in Romania generally, see Robert R. King, Minorities Under Communism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973) pp. 146–69.
This controversy is reviewed by Slobodan Stankovic, ‘Jugoslawiens Nationalitäten-konflikt’ in Osteuropäische Rundschau, no. 5 (Jan./ Feb. 1972) pp. 16–21, 6–10.
Andrew C. Janos, ‘Ethnicity, Communism, and Political Change in Eastern Europe’ in World Politics, vol. XXIII, no. 3 (Apr. 1971) p. 512.
Karl Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge: MIT Press 1966) p. 81.
Leonard Schapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (New York: Vintage 1971) pp. 294–302.
The interwoven control effected by the nomenklatura system is described in the case of Polish’ industrial enterprises by Irena DryllGutkowska, ‘The PUWP District committee’s Directive role With Regard to Industry’, The Polish Sociological Bulletin, no. 2 (1967) pp. 97–109.
Jacek Tarkowski, ‘Local Influences in a Centralized System’ in Luigi Graziano, Peter J. Katzenstein and Sidney Tarrow (eds), Territorial Politics in Industrial States (Ithaca: Cornell, 1978) p. 8.
Jacek Tarkowski, ‘A Study of the Decisional Process in Rolnowo Powiat’ in the Polish Sociological Bulletin, no. 2 (1967) p. 95.
See, for example, Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz, ‘Communist Administration in Poland Within the Framework of Input-Output Analysis’, East European Quarterly 6 (June 1972) pp. 230–58 in which the efforts of people’s councils to neutralize central policies in their locale are examined.
Joel C. Moses, ‘Local Leadership Integration in the Soviet Union’ in D. N. Nelson (ed.), Local Politics in Communist Countries (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1980).
Norman H. Nie, G. Bingham Powell and Kenneth Prewitt, ‘Social Structure and Political Participation: Developmental Relationships II’ in The American Political Science Review, 63 (September 1969) p. 808.
Still the most thoughtful consideration of this point is Mancur Olson, ‘Rapid Growth as a Destabilizing Force’ in Journal of Economic History, 23 (Dec. 1963) pp. 529–32.
James C. Davies, ‘Revolution and the J-Curve’ in H. D. Graham and T. R. Curr (eds), Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, II (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969) p. 547.
See Daniel N. Nelson, ‘Issues in Local Communist Politics’, Western Political Quarterly (Sept. 1977)
See Daniel N. Nelson, ‘Subnational Political Elites in a Communist System’, East European Quarterly (Dec. 1976) pp. 459–94.
Ghita Ionescu, The Politics of the European Communist States (N.Y.: Praeger, 1967) p. 131.
See W. Norojek’s chapter in K. Ostrowski and A. Przeworski (eds), Local Political System in Poland (Warsaw, 1965) p. 31.
For related empirical research see W. Narojek ‘Demokracja lokalna w gromadziew swietle badan empirycznych’, in Problemy Rad Narodowych, vol. 21 (1971) pp. 123–5.
D. N. Nelson, Democratic Centralism in Romania (Boulder, Col.: East European Quarterly, 1980) pp. 72–107.
One study of interest is Howard Scarrow, ‘Policy Pressures by British Local Government: the Case of Regulation in the Public Interests’, Comparative Politics, vol. 4 (Oct. 1971).
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© 1988 Daniel N. Nelson
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Nelson, D.N. (1988). Dilemmas of Local Politics. In: Elite-Mass Relations in Communist Systems. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09104-1_2
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