Local Communities and Post-Communist Transformation: Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia by Simon s> Smith (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 359 on the political process without the aid of the mass media' (p. I83). This is a good point with regard to Russia where Internet use remains low but somewhat misleading when applied to the US. Nevertheless, he sees an importantrole for the Internetin Russia:'Combining the role of samizdat with a social communications industry, the Net is perhaps required by a vocal minority than by a silent majority.But in some cases (thewar in Chechnya), this is already very important, since it leaves a window of freedom in the communications system'(p. I84). The book's only serious shortcoming is the failure to discuss in any detail the main pieces of primary and secondary media legislation, which were enacted throughout the I99os: h7he Mass MediaLaw (I992); TheSecrecy Law (I993); TheReporting Law(I994); TheInformation Law(I995); TheCommunications Law (I995); 7The Law of Information Exchange (I996). Some knowledge of this legislationis criticalto understandingwhat tookplace in the Russianmedia in the I990s. The authormakesa couple of referencesto TheMassMediaLawbut this is inadequate given the book's theme, especially as interpreting TheMass MediaLaw was one of the main problems in media disputes in the i990s. Indeed, one reason why the image of a more competent Russia in the second Chechen war was possible was because information flows were far more tightlycontrolledby the variousministries.What does thismean forpressand media freedoms generally? Nor is there any discussion of the Judicial Chamber, an early attempt to deal with complaints and grievances arising frompresscoverage. Overall, however, this is a usefulstudyof the Russianmedia which coversa critical period and explains many of the problems confronting journalists, legislators, politicians and, indeed, academics, as they try to adapt to the frustrationsand hopes of post-Soviet Russia. Department ofRussian andSlavonic Studies FRANK ELLIS University ofLeeds Smith, Simon (ed.).LocalCommunities andPost-Communist Transformation. Czechoslovakia , theCzech Republic andSlovakia. BASEES RoutledgeCurzon Series on Russian and East European Studies, 3. RoutledgeCurzon, London and New York,2003. Tables. Notes. Index. xxiv + 223 pp. ?6o.oo. As thisnew collection highlights,extricationfrom Communist rulein Central and Eastern Europe encompassed not merely national 'modes of transition', but a myriad of local transitions. This is particularly true in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where patterns of settlement, pre-Communist traditions of public administration and Communist ultra-centralism made the restoration of the self-governing commune/community (obec) one of the key ideals of the November I989 'VelvetRevolution'. With the exception of MartinMyant's chapter,which surveysthe nationallevel relationshipbetween partiesand civil society in the Czech Republic, the book's contributors all examine this neglected dimension of transformation through detailed local case studies. Simon Smith explores the legacies of the civic movements of I989, studying Public Against Violence across the 360 SEER, 83, 2, 2005 Humenne districtof EastSlovakiaand Civic Forumin fiveCzech communities in West Bohemia. Similarly, Mikulas Huba examines the transformationof the Slovak Union of Nature and Landscape Conservationists(SZOPK) from an island of alternative thinking within official structuresbefore I989 to a diverse set of successor NGOs in the post-Meciar era. Like many of the sociallyengaged Czech and Slovaksociologistsin late Communist Czechoslovakia whose work he explores in the introduction, Smith sees local civic mobilization as pre-figuring radical forms of community self-determination outside the reach of bureaucraticstate administrationand conventional party politics. In practice, however, as his and others' contributions make clear, factional infighting, the dominance of networksof local notables, small scale clientelism and passive, disengaged local populations have been more common outcomes. However, there are local success stories. The conditions facilitating these more positive patterns of civic engagement, he suggests, includecollaborationbetween 'old'(Communist-era)and 'new'organizations; strong local identities, which enable the 'narrativization'of post-Communist transformationat grassrootslevel; and the presence of clear external threats to the community. Such factors are formalized in Martin Slosiarnik'snotion of 'civic potential' developed in a comparative analysis of two Slovak communities which, although similar in terms of demographics and socioeconomic structure, have had contrasting success in local transformation. Elsewhere, Zdenka Vajdova's review of ten years of local transformationin the Czech Republic presentsthesefactorsin more familiartermsof social and human capital. As Imrich Vasickaemphasizes in a study of localities in East Slovakia, 'external threats' to community life are generated not just by residual centralism in state...