Abstract
Communist states are a relatively recent phenomenon. Seventy years ago there were none at all; forty years ago there were only three, the USSR and two Asian outposts, Mongolia and Tuva; and as late as 1945 there were only five such states, located for the most part in Eastern Europe (Albania and Yugoslavia as well as the USSR) and also in Asia (North Vietnam and Mongolia, Tuva having in the meantime been absorbed by the USSR). Since then communist regimes have come into existence elsewhere in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the German Democratic Republic), in Latin America (Cuba), and also in Asia (China, North Korea, and most recently Laos and Kampuchea). As a result of these changes there were sixteen states which, at the beginning of the 1980s, could reasonably be classified as communist (Table 1.1). In addition a number of other states, particularly in the develo** countries, have adopted some of the institutional features of the communist states such as a single ruling party or a centrally planned economy, and communist or workers’ parties have come into existence in virtually every country of the world, some of them claiming independence of any of the existing ruling parties but all of them accepting the authority of Marxism—Leninism.
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Further Reading
A reliable introduction to the development of the communist states is available in Hugh Seton-Watson, The Pattern of Communist Revolution, rev. edn (London and New York, 1960).
This may be supplemented by Thomas T. Hammond (ed.), The Anatomy of Communist Takeovers (New Haven and London, 1975);
François Fetjö, A History of the People’s Democracies, rev. edn (Harmondsworth, 1974);
Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict, rev. edn (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1967);
MartinMcCauley (ed.), Communist Power in Europe 1944–49 (London, 1977);
and William Deakin, Harry Shukman and Harry Willetts, A History of World Communism (London, 1975).
Developments over the last couple of decades are reviewed in Hugh Seton-Watson, The Imperialist Revolutionaries: World Communism in the 1960s and 1970s, rev. edn (London, 1980).
Recent events may be followed in the Annual Register (London) and the Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (Stanford, Calif.) A selection of documentary sources is available in Bogdan Szajkowski (ed.), Documents in Communist Affairs (Cardiff), which has been published periodically since 1977.
A number of important articles on the interpretation of communist politics are collected in Frederic J. Fleron, Jr. (ed.), Communist Studies and the Social Sciences (Chicago, 1969)
and in Roger E. Kanet (ed.), The Behavioral Revolution and Communist Studies (New York, 1971).
These may be supplemented by Chalmers Johnson (ed.), Change in Communist Systems (Stanford, Calif., 1970);
H. Gordon Skilling and Franklyn Griffiths (eds.), Interest Groups in Soviet Politics (Princeton, N. J., 1971);
Ghita Ionescu, Comparative Communist Politics (London, 1972);
T. H. Rigby, ‘“Totalitarianism” and change in communist systems’, Comparative Politics IV (1972);
A. H. Brown, Soviet Politics and Political Science (London, 1974);
Lenard J. Cohen and Jane P. Shapiro (eds.), Communist Systems in Comparative Perspective (New York, 1974);
Daniel Tarschys, ‘The Soviet political system: three models’, European Journal of Political Research V (1977);
and ch. 6 of David Lane Politics and Society in the USSR, 2nd edn (London, 1978).
The standard treatment of totalitarianism is Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy, 2nd edn (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1965).
See also Carl J. Friedrich (ed.), Totalitarianism in Perspective (New York and London 1969);
Leonard Schapiro, Totalitarianism (London, 1972);
and Michael Curtis, Totalitarianism (London, 1979).
On modernisation theory, see John H. Kautsky, ‘Comparative communism versus comparative polities’, Studies in Comparative Communism VI (1973);
Stephen White, ‘Communist systems and the “iron law of pluralism”’, British Journal of Political Science VIII (1978);
and the same author’s Political Culture and Soviet Politics (London, 1979), ch. 8, from which the quotations in this section are taken.
On the bureaucratic model see Alfred G. Meyer, ‘USSR, Incorporated’, Slavic Review XX (1961);
the same author’s The Soviet Political System (New York, 1965);
John A. Armstrong, ‘Sources of administrative behavior: some Soviet and Western European comparisons’, American Political Science Review LIX (1965);
Dmitri K. Simes, ‘The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the limits of Kremlinology’, Studies in Comparative Communism VIII (1975);
and Karen L. Dawisha, ‘The limits of the bureaucratic politics model: observations on the Soviet case’, ibid, XIII (1980), and the accompanying discussion.
Basic details about all Marxist—Leninist regimes presently in power may be found in Bogdan Szajkowski, (ed.), Marxist Governments: A World Survey, 3 vols. (London, 1981).
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe more particularly are fully covered in Paul S. Shoup, The Eastern European and Soviet Data Handbook. Political, Social and Developmental Indicators 1945–75 (New York, 1981).
These may be updated by reference to annual publications such as the Statesman’s Yearbook (London), Whitaker’s Almanac (London) and the Europa Yearbook (London). Periodicals of particular importance to the student of comparative communist politics include Soviet Studies (Glasgow, quarterly), Slavic Review (Columbus, Ohio, quarterly), Survey (London quarterly), The China Quarterly (London, quarterly), Problems of Communism (Washington, D.C., bimonthly), Critique (Glasgow, biannually), and Studies in Comparative Communism (Los Angeles, quarterly).
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© 1982 Stephen White, John Gardner and George Schöpflin
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White, S., Gardner, J., Schöpflin, G. (1982). The Comparative Study of Communist States. In: Communist Political Systems. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16851-4_1
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