People and Politics Worldwide
Slavic Europe: Introduction to the Region, Geography,Political Development, Political Culture

I. Slavic Europe
A.  Fascinating subject

raising many questions about political development         

Interactions among economic systems, political systems, political culture

B.  Transition of Eastern Europe

unprecedented in terms of rate of change and complexity of change

SCOPE of change

415 MILLION PEOPLE AFFECTED

 Cold War map

C.  New Geography, New Terms

 USSR breaks into 15 different independent countries
Former USSR:
The Russian Federation plus

Europe:
The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Ukraine
Belorus

The Caucasus:
Moldova
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Armenia

The Eurasian Republics:
    Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

Former Warsaw Pact Countries

    Soviet "satellites" in Central Eastern Europe:
    Poland
    Hungary
    Czech Republic
    Slovak Republic
    Romania
    Bulgaria                                                                                                                         New nation-states:
Czechoslovakia becomes Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

Yugoslavia (note: NOT aligned with USSR pre-1991)
Becomes Slovenia, Croatia, The Republics of Serbia and Montenegro,
UN protectorates in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo

D.  Transition from what to what?

Climbing through the Wall 


II.  Slavic European Economic and Political Development

 A.  Differences from the West – pre-20th Century

1.  empires last longer – 1914 or longer                                                                            slower to develop nation-state

2.  feudalism
     serfdom – define key elements
      lasts only until 14th C in West

Serfdom lasts much longer in the East

 B.  20th Century- Communism
    1. What does it mean
      a. In American vernacular

  b. In Marxist theory

    c.  In Eastern Europe 1917-1989/91
    "Marxist-Leninism"
  d.  Leninism - political structures
  e.  Stalinism - forced industrialization
    state terror

 2. WhyCommunism?
    Development Gap with  West
 
C. Was Communism successful in closing the development gap with the West?

  1.  What evidence does Magstadt give that there is a development gap between Western Europe and Slavic Europe?

  2.  See data at beginning of
    Slavic Europe:  Institutions and Policies chapter
    (GNP per capita, GNP per capital growth, inflation,
     unemployment; Tables 6.1, 6.2, 6.5, 6.11)

Farming in Poland

   3.  Finally, think in terms of POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 

Is there also a 'development gap' in terms of Slavic Europe's political development? 

    How has European history affected the political cultures of
        Central and Eastern European societies?




E.  The Russian example. 

 1.  How has Russian history, geography shaped Russian political culture, national characteristics?

 2.  How does Magstadt describe Russian character, temperament, values