Comrades No More: The Seeds of Change in Eastern Europe / Edition 1

by Renee De Nevers, Renée De Nevers

Overview

In 1989, Soviet control over Eastern Europe ended when the communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact collapsed. These momentous and largely bloodless events set the stage for the end of the Cold War and ushered in a new era in international politics. Why did communism collapse relatively peacefully in Eastern Europe? Why did these changes occur in 1989, after more than four decades of communist rule? Why did this upheaval happen almost simultaneously in most of the Warsaw Pact? In Comrades No More, Renee de Nevers examines how internal and external factors interacted in the collapse of East European communism. She argues that Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union were necessary to start the process of political change in Eastern Europe, but domestic factors in each communist state determined when and how each country abandoned communism. A "demonstration effect" emerged as Hungary and Poland introduced reforms and showed that Moscow would not intervene to prevent political and economic changes.De Nevers analyzes the process of change in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. She traces the pattern of reform in each country and shows how these patterns influenced their postcommunist political evolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262541299
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	06/20/2003
Series:	Belfer Center Studies in International Security
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Renee de Nevers is a Program Officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Renée de Nevers's clear framework helps make sense of turbulent events and highlights the importance of demonstration effects as a more general cause of democratic change." Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

"Renée de Nevers's clear framework helps make sense of turbulentevents and highlights the importance of demonstration effects as a... general cause of democratic change." Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of InternationalRelations, Columbia University

Editorial Reviews

In lucid, unpretentious form, she emerges as an intellectual arbiter...—Foreign Affairs—

From the Publisher