The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland by Steven s> Saxonberg (review)

Abstract

i66 SEER, 8 i, I, 2003 Waras essentiallyfoughtby Moscow and Washingtonin, and over, Europe:a common enough conceptualizationbut not comprehensive. Department ofHistory SUSAN L. CARRUTHERS RutgersUniversity, Newark,A Saxonberg, Steven. 7The Fall: A Comparative Studyof theEnd of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary andPoland.International Studies in Global Change, Ii. Harwood Academic Publishers,Amsterdam, 200I. xvii + 434 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $56.oo: C37.00: ?62.00. THIS studysetsitselfvery ambitioustargets.It aimsto examine the theoretical frameworksfor explaining the fall of communism in EasternEurope in I989 as well as the empirical detail on the course of events in four of the main countries. Saxonberg'sprimaryfocus is on the establisheddistinctionbetween the elite-led negotiated type of revolution in Poland and Hungary and the mass movement People's Power form in Czechoslovakia and East Germany. He attempts to explain their respective courses by overviewing the whole range of democratization theory. He then examines the economic crisis, the blockagescausing the failureof economic reformand Gorbachev'sdecentralizing policies, both in the USSR and in the running of the Soviet bloc. These factors, which he regards as providing the general causes for communist collapse, led to the loss of ideological legitimacy and, in turn, provoked systemicfailure.Saxonberg'sgreatmerit is that he produces a clear, although unexceptional, examination of the specificelite policy choices and interaction with civil society in each of his four cases in order to elucidate the differences in the process of revolutionary change between the individual countries. Saxonbergcontendsthatthe degreeof liberalization,ratherthanthe influence of civil society, proved to be the determiningfactor. The conclusion does not seem fully borne out by his subsequent explanation why social movements, notably Solidarity and the radical intellectuals, were so much stronger in Polandthan in Hungary. Saxonberg has little new to say, beyond what has been long establishedby J. F. Brown,Jon Elster,Judy Batt and othersabout the mechanismsof power transferin I989. The analysisissharpenough;so aremany of the observations on the differences in detail between the Polish and Hungarian eliteinstitutionalcompromises , for example the former'spreference for a proportional (and eventually contractual)and the latterfor a majoritarian,electoral arrangement.I am not convinced by the characterizationof the East German and Czechoslovak cases as 'non violent', rather than the more widely used 'People's Power', revolutions. The former term obscures the central role of sudden, unexpected and uncontrollablemass action in achieving the systemic rupture. This in my view, was the key factor rather than the subsequent tedious and long drawn out elite-opposition negotiations and manoeuvrings, such as those of the Adamec period in Czechoslovakia in the run-up to the firstfreeelection. REVIEWS I67 Saxonberg does not reallysucceed in developing a middle range model, as defined by Robert Merton, which elucidates the East-Central European collapse of communist systems. He compiles an exhaustive and thorough compendium of approachesand builds up an edifice of 'partialexplanations'. This is most noticeable in the conclusion which is little more than a summary of the ground covered earlier in the study along with a favourablereview of Linz and Stepan. This, as well as the empirical examination, is admirably comprehensive in terms of detail, dimensions and time periods covered. The book has undoubted solid merits, and yet, despite all the hard labour which has clearly gone into it, the study, although argued well enough, section by section, stillhas a referencebook feel about it. One is hardlysurprisedto learn that this studystartedlife as an Uppsala Universitydoctoral dissertation.The positive side, though, is that it draws on extensive documentation, albeit, mainly secondary sources, apart from interviews with some actors and participants,which are utilizedvery sensiblyby the author. Althoughthepublishershave produceda glossyand attractivepublicationit is deplorable that this academic publication has been so poorly proof-read. This clashesparticularlybadlywith the sweepingencomiums and enthusiastic endorsementswhich the publishershave collected on the author'sbehalf.The appearance of a certain 'Seymore' Martin Lipset in the forewordwould, by itself,raiseno more than an academic chuckle!But the text is litteredwith an annoying set of typographicalerrorsand linguisticinaccuracies,especiallyas faras names are concerned, which undermineconfidence in the analysis.I do not demurfromthe greatman's (Lipset's) judgement that 'Saxonbergpresents a highly ambitious and complex analysis of the downfall of communism' (p. xiii). This work certainly provides a useful and detailed synthesis of the...