Foreign and Domestic Policy in Eastern Europe in the 1980s: Trends and Prospects

271 Pages·1983·26.743 MB·English

by  Michael J. Sodaro, Sharon L. Wolchik (eds.)

FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY
IN EASTERN EUROPE IN THE 1980s
The decade of the 1980s may well prove to be a turning-point in the
post-war history of Eastern Europe. The enduring crisis in Poland,
the need for greater economic austerity in the light of mounting
energy prices and foreign debts, and renewed tensions in East-West
relations are among the most important sign-posts of change to come
as the decade begins. How have these problems affected the com
munist states of Eastern Europe thus far, and how are they likely to
develop in the immediate future? lOs questions such as these that the
essays in this volume explore.
The nine experts assembled here examine a variety of political,
economic and social issues that are not only of critical importance to
Eastern Europe's recent past and future prospects, but are also of
theoretical relevance to social scientists interested in studying the
region systematically. The contributions provide both a comparative
overview of problems common to Eastern Europe as a whole and
in-depth treatment of specific issues in six of the region's largest
states.
Part I deals with the linkage between foreign and domestic policy
in three countries where this connection is especially significant.
William Zimmerman's study of Yugoslavia sheds new light on that
nation's domestic policy processes as it grapples with the problem of
disbursing development funds obtained from outside sources. The
essay offers a timely analysis of the kinds of decision-making proce
dures available to Yugoslav leaders in the post-Tito era. Ronald H.
Linden's investigation of the domestic bases of Romanian foreign
policy is an enlightening example of how internal factors affect a
nation's international activities, while Michael J. Sodaro's essay on
the German Democratic Republic demonstrates how forces originat
ing in the international environment can affect the domestic system.
Part II focuses on a topic of growing concern in all the communist
states of Eastern Europe: the role of specialists and professionals in
the policy-making process. Sharon L. Wolchik looks at the impact of
demographers on the formation of social policy in Czechoslovakia.
Jane L. Curry uses the current unrest in Poland as a backdrop for her
study of Polish journalists, not only before and during the period of
national "renewal" inaugurated in the summer of 1980, but also after
the imposition of martial law in December 1981. Rudolf L. Tokes
examines the status of the intelligentsia in Hungary. Each of these
essays raises questions that extend far beyond the scope of the
countries examined, as they touch on the sensitive relationship
between pragmatically oriented specialists and politically minded
party elites, an issue that exists in all communist systems.
Part III addresses a series of problems confronting Eastern Europe
as a region. Economic integration within Comecon is analyzed in
Stanislaw Wasowski's penetrating analysis of the divergence between
plans and realities in Eastern Europe's principal trading organiza
tion. Thomas Cason's survey of the Warsaw Pact after twenty-five
years highlights the scope and limits of Eastern Europe's military
cooperation with the Soviet Union. Finally, Roger E. Kanet provides
a comprehensive overview of Eastern Europe's growing relations
with the Third World.
All of the essays conclude with a section on the outlook for the
1980s, spelling out possible courses of development in Eastern
Europe as the present decade progresses. The result is a timely and
provocative contribution to our understanding of where Eastern
Europe may be going at this critical juncture in its political evolution.
Foreign and Domestic
Policy in Eastern Europe
in the 1980s
Trends and Prospects
Edited by
Michael J. Sodaro
and
Sharon L. Wolchik
© Michael J. Sodaro and Sharon L. Wo1chik 1983
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-32478-3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1983 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-17253-5 ISBN 978-1-349-17251-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17251-1
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Notes on the Editors and Contributors ix
1 Introduction 1
Michael J. Sodaro and Sharon L. Wolchik
PART I DOMESTIC-INTERNATIONAL LINKAGES
2 International-national Linkages and Political
Processes in Yugoslavia 27
William Zimmerman
3 Romanian Foreign Policy in the 1980s: Domestic-
foreign Policy Linkages 47
Ronald H. Linden
4 External Influences on Regime Stability in the GDR:
a Linkage Analysis 81
Michael J. Sodaro
PART II THE ROLE OF SPECIALIST ELITES
5 The Scientific-technological Revolution and the Role
of Specialist Elites in Policy-making in Czechoslovakia 111
Sharon L. W olchik
6 Polish Journalists in the 1980s 133
Jane L. Curry
7 Intellectuals and their Discontent in Hungary:
Class Power or Marginality? 160
Rudolf L. Tokes
PART III EASTERN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
8 Comecon: the Recent Past and Perspectives for the 1980s 193
Stanislaw Wasowski
vi Contents
9 The Warsaw Pact 213
Thomas Cason
10 Eastern Europe and the Third World: the
Expanding Relationship 234
Roger E. Kanet
Index 260
Acknowledgements
Like many books of scholarly interest these days, the present volume
grew out of a conference. Under the auspices of the Institute for
Sino-Soviet Studies, a group of some thirty specialists gathered at the
George Washington University on 4 and 5 April 1980 to participate
in discussions on the theme of "Eastern Europe in the 1980s: Trends
and Prospects." Although the conference participants, particularly
those who presented the papers which formed the basis of the
chapters in this book, were for the most part professional scholars,
the audience was by no means limited to academicians. A consider
able part of the funding for the conference was provided by the US
Department of State, and representatives of that institution as well as
of other US government agencies also participated actively in the
conference sessions.
Unfortunately, space does not permit us to mention by name all
those who helped make the conference a success and who, in one way
or another, contributed to the preparation of this volume. We owe
special thanks, however, to three individuals without whose encour
agement and generosity neither the conference itself nor this book
would ever have seen the light of day: Gaston J. Sigur, Director of
the Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies at George Washington; Andrew
Gyorgy, our respected colleague and fellow member of the Institute;
and Eric Willenz of the Division of Intelligence and Research of the
State Department. Our editor at Macmillan, Mr T. M. Farmiloe,
deserves particularly warm thanks for his enormous patience and skill
in piloting this project to publication. We would also like to express
our gratitude to Dorothy Wedge and Sheila Murphy for their enor
mous help in organizing the conference and typing the final drafts of
the manuscripts, and to Suzanne Stephenson, Nathaniel Richmond
and Kelly Eaton for invaluable editorial assistance. We wish also to
thank Brevis Press for helping us to prepare this volume for publica
tion.
No list of debts accumulated by the editors of a book of this kind
would be complete without a word of gratitude for our authors. All of
them graciously responded to our request that the original confer-
viii Acknowledgements
ence papers be revised in 1981 and 1982; in some cases, the papers
were completely rewritten for this volume to reflect rapidly changing
events in Eastern Europe (particularly in Poland). We consider
ourselves fortunate to have worked with such a distinguished and
personable group of scholars.
In closing, we wish to single out the following conference partici
pants for their valued contribution: R. V. Burks, Walter D. Connor,
Richard T. Davies, Charles Gati, John Hardt, James Kuhlman,
Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz, Robin Remington, Carl W. Schmidt, Paul
Shapiro and Robert Sharlet. The editors also wish to note that we
shared our editorial burdens equally, and that the order in which our
names appear on the cover was determined at random.
M. J. S.
S. L. W.
February 1983
Notes on the Editors
and Contributors
Michael J. Sodaro is Assistant Professor of International Affairs
and Political Science and a member of the Institute for Sino
Soviet Studies at the George Washington University. His articles
on the domestic and foreign policies of the GDR, French and
Italian communism, and Soviet foreign policy have appeared in
several books and in such journals as Problems of Communism and
Studies in Comparative Communism. He is presently at work on a
study of recent Soviet relations with the two Germanies.
Sharon L. Wolchik is Assistant Professor of International Affairs and
Political Science and a member of the Institute for Sino-Soviet
Studies at the George Washington University. She has written
numerous articles on the status of women in Eastern Europe and
on women in politics. Her other research includes studies of the
West European communist parties. At the present time she is
working on a book on policy-making in socialist states, with an em
phasis on the role of specialists.
Thomas Cason is a Major in the United States Air Force and a
doctoral candidate in political science at the George Washington
University, where he is completing a dissertation on the political
and military reliability of the East European members of the
Warsaw Treaty Organization. He served as Assistant Professor of
Aerospace Studies at the University of Maryland, and has con
tributed to publications and conferences dealing with the Warsaw
Pact and NATO.
Jane L. Cnrry is an Assistant Professor at Manhattanville College
and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute on East-Central
Europe at Columbia University. She is also a Semor Consultant
to the RAND Corporation, which has published a series of her
monographs on the media and inter-elite communications in
Poland. She is the co-editor of All the News Not Fit to Print,
editor of Dissent in Eastern Europe, and author of The Black
Book of Polish Censorship.
Roger E. Kanet is Professor of Political Science and a member of
the Russian and East European Center of the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published widely on the