Perspectives for Change in Communist Societies

To what degree has political, social, and economic change been stimulated by the impact of the past and present policies of Communist political systems? Perhaps more important, to what extent has the momentum for change, stimulated by past policies, been frustrated by the nature of these systems? This volume, an interdisciplinary and international work based on a symposium presented at the October 1976 Annual Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, addresses these questions. The contributors collectively assess the extent of change generated by the policies of social mobilization as they are channeled and contained within the Communist political systems. Clearly and perceptively, they analyze selected aspects of change—or its absence—in the political, social, and economic life of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.