Abstract
In this article, the author tests an hypothesis central to comparative politics and, increasingly, to the study of communist systems—namely, that political change covaries with socioeconomic changes often called “development” and “modernization.” Nine European communist states are ranked according to their socioeconomic levels and rates of socioeconomic change on the basis of aggregate data for a 20-year period. Five political variables are then tested at an ordinal level for correlation with both socioeconomic measures. Minimal support is found for an hypothesis which would link socioeconomic and political change in communist Europe, although several bivariate relationships are found to be moderately strong (e.g., between the frequency of conflictual events and socioeconomic levels).
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