Political Liberalization

1
Political Liberalization
2
Monopoly of the Communist Party

• During the reform period, the Party maintains its
  monopoly
  
• continues to control appointments to important
  posts
  
• nomenklatura system remains

3

• in some countries, some relaxation of control
  over parliamentary elections occurs
  
• opposing candidates who are not members of the
  Party get elected
  
• Party maintains firm majority
• government by decree continues
• no separation of powers
• Party and bureaucracy continue to operate above
  the law

4

• Party-state apparatus continues to have absolute
  control over the military, police, and other
  security forces
  
• lots of examples of the military or police being
  used to suppress dissent during the reform
  period
  
• Poland in 1981
• China in 1989

5
Easing of Repression

• Compared to the classical period, there is
  noticeably less repression
  
• those who support the system need not fear the
  purges and persecutions that were so common
  
• excesses of the former period condemned
• creates moral crisis in the bureaucracy
• feel shamed about having participated
• want to turn over a new leaf
• important element in the reform process

6
Official Ideology

• Certain elements remain
• leading role of the Party
• validity of Marxist-Leninist theory
• if Stalin or Mao were wrong, it was because they
  misunderstood Marx and Lenin

7

• superiority of public ownership
• for certain countries, the leadership position of
  the Soviet Union
  
• While these elements cannot be criticized, it
  becomes no longer necessary to kowtow to them all
  the time
  
• writers learn to criticize between the lines and
  readers learn to read between the lines

8

• Dissident underground material appears that do
  criticize these taboo elements of the ideology
  
• When such criticism goes above ground and is
  heard in the media and at public meetings, the
  reform process becomes a revolutionary process

9

• Some elements undergo revision
• superiority over capitalism
• no longer superior by definition
• becomes hard to deny that the gap is increasing
• official media and public discussions begin to
  consider advantages of market mechanisms

10

• heroic sacrifice replaced by need to provide the
  people with material incentives
  
• sacrifice for the next generation during forced
  industrialization replaced with focus on
  improving consumption growth
  
• at least until economic turmoil strikes and then
  focus on consumption is the first to go

11

• state paternalism and socialization of
  consumption reverses course
  
• state responsibility to provide housing,
  education, public services, subsidized food, etc.
  replaced by individual responsibility

12

• all this happens as a process of disintegration
  of ideological discipline
  
• control over press and public discourse loosens
• not a free press, but what gets said and reported
  would not have been said or reported during the
  classical period

13
Beginnings of Pluralism

• Sectoral lobbies grow in strength
• always part of the system but influence
  strengthens as center weakens

14

• Regional and ethnic interests grow
• becomes a particular problem in ethnically
  diverse countries like Soviet Union
  
• power of regional administrative authority grows
  relative to the center
  
• great concern about regional issues such as power
  relationships, tax sharing, etc.
  
• becomes a major power struggle

15

• The power of organized religion grows
• state repression of religion relaxes
• moral authority of religion grows as moral
  authority of the state weakens
  
• increasing strength of religion, in turn, becomes
  a force in opposition to the state
  
• Poland

16

• Union begins to act less as a unit of the
  bureaucracy and more as representative of the
  workers
  
• real workers movements appear, either union
  organized or organized by some informal workers
  group
  
• strikes tolerated
• Donbas coal miners in Ukraine

17

• New associations appear that are not controlled
  by the center
  
• environmental movements
• tenants associations
• pensioners association
• professional associations
• the seeds of a civil society never before
  tolerated

18

• Party factions become more open and more
  influential
  
• seeds of a multi-party system
• clearly happening in Cuba today
• old-liners versus reformists
• Alternative political movements appear
• rallies
• petition drives
• Varela project in Cuba

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• such dissident activities can always be
  repressed
  
• tolerated because of divisions within the power
  structure of the state
  
• why has Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, organizer of the
  Varela Project, not been jailed in the current
  dissident crackdown?
  
• in part because its too late the international
  community watches

20

• Dissident activity accelerates
• causes panic in the state and Party leadership
• may react to growing influence of the dissidents
  by lashing out
  
• current crackdown in Cuba is a perfect example
• Sakharov in the Soviet union
• Havel in Czechoslovakia

21
Opening Up to the Capitalist World

• Began in China in early 70s
• Nixon travels to China in 1971
• Foreign policy directed at reducing tensions
• disarmament

22

• Anti-western propaganda subsides
• replaced by calls for peaceful coexistence
• All sorts of communications increase
• including official travel and even tourism
• students travel abroad to study and even work
• China

23

• Opening to the capitalist world does not always
  go smoothly
  
• China in the Hainan Island incident
• Cubas current snit with Europe at the same time
  it holds trade fairs for American firms
  
• Opening comes at great peril to socialist system
• individuals get to do their own comparative
  studies

24
Political Opening

• Glasnost was the term Gorbachev used to label
  this process
  
• Two elements
• less secretiveness
• the people are informed of the decisions that
  affect them and how those decisions are reached
  
• the truth must be told
• no more publication of falsehoods

25

• Secretiveness was a virtue in the classical
  system
  
• part of the vigilance required against the
  enemies from within and without
  
• Lying was never officially considered a virtue
  but specific lies could always be justified on
  the grounds that the ends justify the means
  
• whatever is in the interest of the state can be
  justified

26

• Falsehood was not necessarily a product of lying
• ideological brainwashing resulted in denial of
  reality
  
• individuals mentally discard facts not consistent
  with the ideology or their belief in the
  infallibility of the leadership
  
• Cuba does not have a drug problem
• an obvious falsehood that is firmly believed by
  the bureaucracy
  
• contributes to the moral crisis of the bureaucracy

27

• Secretiveness a tough habit to break
• the initial reaction after Chernobyl was to deny
  and lie in spite of glasnost
  
• public reaction and international pressure forced
  the leadership to admit what happened
  
• unlike the case when a similar accident occurred
  in the mid 50s
  
• still have not been completely truthful about
  impact on Kiev
  
• still shipping young cancer victims to Cuba for
  treatment

28

• Glasnost is a loose tiger
• creates its own dynamic
• does nothing to solve the economic ills of the
  socialist system
  
• the shortages
• the sellers market
• the poor quality of consumption goods
• repression kept the lid on discontent
• with repression loosening up, the discontent
  rises to the surface and turns on the system

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• thus, liberalization creates the conditions for
  revolution
  
• in the case of East Europe, that revolution
  spread even to those countries in which there had
  been no such liberalization
  
• East Germany
• Czechoslovakia
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• once these people there saw what was happening in
  China, Hungary and Poland, the lid blew off

30
Limits of Reform

• Reform can last a long time
• it achieves a sort of equilibrium
• but the equilibrium is unstable
• the dynamic of reform leads ultimately to its own
  end
  
• Poland a good example of a lengthy and highly
  tumultuous reform period

31

• The limit of reform is reached at the point at
  which the leadership admits the principle of
  political competition
  
• the end of the Party monopoly

32

• China has had an extremely long reform by this
  definition
  
• the Chinese Communist Party still has a monopoly
  at the national level
  
• but free elections have been held at the village
  level
  
• slowly, the end will come when the Part will
  finally give up its monopoly even at the national
  level
  
• when should we date the end of reform?