Poland's crisis and East European socialism

Conclusion We began this article by asking whether the Polish crisis is a socialist or a Polish disease. By citing the structural factors, we brought out the common difficulties affecting all East European societies in their political and economic development. These difficulties arose out of the transition from extensive to intensive economic growth and the consequent need to replace political mobilization of the population with their political integration. The structural contradictions occurred together with conjunctural developments in the world economy, the collapse of detente, the post-war demographic explosion, and natural calamities. Poland was least able to cope with these structural and conjunctural dynamics. The result was a society united on a national basis in its conflicts with the Party State apparatus. This conflict was never resolved by Solidarity nor by the subsequent military coup.While Poland and Romania had quite similar structural and conjunctural dynamics, it was only in Poland that the constellation of nation-specific factors yielded a societal reaction of system-threatening character. Looking at the rest of Eastern Europe, we do not see a similar constellation of factors. Rather, the combination of structural, conjunctural, and specific conditions has prevented the deeper contradictions from evolving into Solidarity-type mass movements of the Polish variety. Thus, we believe that the Polish developments will not be replicated in any of the other East European countries in the foreseeable future.Does this mean that the Polish experience is so unique that it is without relevance for the other East European states? On the contrary, the recognition of common structural problems points to fundamental conflicts in all the countries of actually existing socialism. The essence of these conflicts may be the same. It is the ability to identify and deal with them that distinguishes one East European regime from another. This ability varies with the specific and conjunctural factors as applied to each country. While there is little likelihood that the Polish disease will spread, this is partly because the other East European states are beginning to take preventive measures. In other words, they are learning from the Polish experience.There are several indicators that these regimes have learned from the Polish crisis. We can summarize them in the following predictions:First, we believe that state power and the repressive apparatus of the various East European countries will be reinforced and made more effective. This applies not so much to overt shows of force but to more sophisticated methods of social control and repression: e.g., limiting information channels, dispersing dissident groups, giving in to workers protests before they spread, taking practical measures to prevent consumer shortages from getting out of hand, and the like.Second, we can expect that oppositional forces, especially intellectuals, will be increasingly restricted in their ability to formulate and articulate system-threatening demands. The East European states will take any measures - jail, slander, internal deportation, cooptation, forced emigration - to make sure that intellectuals' contact with workers is weakened or at least strictly supervised.Third, we can expect the Eastern European states to take further measures to integrate potential system-threatening movements into the official system. We will see further attempts to improve the access possibilities for those social interests that have up to now been neglected, e.g. in physical and social infrastructures, neglected regions. Moreover, there will be renewed efforts to make the system of political socialization (education, propaganda, culture) more effective. Finally, we can expect anti-corruption campaigns within the State, Party, and industrial bureaucracies as the elites attempt to make these organs more legitimate in the eyes of the population.In recent months there seems to be considerable evidence that the East European regimes have taken all these measures. There have been attempts to re-invigorate the official trade unions. Yuri Andropov's succession was marked by a highly publicized anti-corruption campaign designed to win favor among rank-and-file workers. In Romania there have been exhortations towards more self-sufficiency and self-management, so that individual producers will be less dependent on State retail outlets, and the country less dependent on costly foreign imports. The reduction in East-West trade and decline of detente have also given more leeway for the East European repressive apparatus to crack down on dissidents and oppositional movements.With reduced trade, the economic benefits of detente no longer exist as a restraining factor on the authorities. The West now has reduced influence on domestic politics in East Europe. The combination of integration and repressive measures has so far prevented the structural contradictions from growing into true political crises of the Polish variety. Eastern Europe (and Poland) is remarkably quiet.With the broad enthusiasm fostered in the West by the rise of Solidarity, it is understandable that its brutal demise had generated parallel feelings of disillusionment. It would be erroneous to consider the Polish events as an archetype for Eastern Europe. The problems of East European regimes reflect a general system crisis (economic and political), each country's response depends on specific local conditions and fortuitous conjunctures. If the Polish events are to be understood, they must be explained as a variant in a larger East European context.Having concentrated on the crisis aspects in Poland and Romania should not blind us from the fact that these systems have an amazing ability to reproduce themselves - to muddle through. Actually existing socialism is more than simply brute force. Each of the East European societies exhibits a complex dialectic between the forces of functional stability and the forces of immanent contradictions. As such, in addition to their structural aspects, we must analyze each of these societies in their differing vulnerability to conjunctural events and in their specific political, social, and cultural characters.For those who seek to replace actually existing socialism with a more emancipatory socialism, the Polish crisis constitutes a key point of departure. It should be discussed both in terms of what it means for Poland, and for Eastern Europe. The Polish events provide further evidence that the tasks of social theory reside as much in explaining why societies muddle through as why they fall apart.     

Alternative theory and utopian models

A theoretical model of human systems is presented based on the basic paradigms upon which families, groups, and social systems can be organized. Four fundamentally distinct paradigms are described and the interrelationships among them explored, with special consideration given to the social evolution of systems organized on these paradigms. Implications for the study of alternative lifestyles and utopian societies are discussed.Portions of this paper are based on a presentation at the Fifth Annual Conference on Utopian Studies, Pennsylvania State University, 11 October 1980. The author wishes to thank Rich Erlich, Barry Singer, and Kersti Yllo for valuable comments on earlier versions. Inquiries to the author: 22 Bulette Road, Acton, Massachusetts 01720.     

Demographic changes as a problem for social security systems

The relationship between demographic changes and the social security system is explored. The focus is on the current situation in the Federal Republic of Germany, but consideration is also given to comparable developments in other developed countries. Emphasis is placed on how changes in the age distribution of modern populations affect the relative proportion of the productive and the dependent populations.     

The ethical review of medical research: a social movement to protect the interests of research subjects

This paper is based upon observations made in the United States regarding the operation of the Institutional Review Boards. Institutional Review Boards are an essential part of the American system for the ethical review of human subjects research and it is argued that their importance is due in part to the American approach to the protection of minority groups. It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the Institutional Review Boards since a similar model is being proposed by the National Health & Medical Research Council as part of the ethical review of medical research projects conducted in Australia.     

Young migrants of the second generation in Europe: education and labour market insertion prospects

This paper compares the situation of second generation migrants in employing European nations with first generation migrants in the countries of origin. The study focuses on intergenerational changes in employment, unemployment, and further migration. High rates of failure, underachievement, and non-attendance are often found among migrant school children. Girls and boys show high occupational aspirations from age 10-14, but more realistic aspirations by their last year of school. Although vocational training interests many young foreigners, they usually do not get enough training to compete successfully in the labor market. Unemployment affects young foreigners more, and their employment is more unstable, unskilled, and without advancement. Indecision dominates their attitudes about return migration. The country of origin usually cannot provide employment, especially for women, and the longer young migrants have been in employing nations, the less likely they are to want to leave. Difficulty in migrating and the parental desire for superior schooling also limit return migration. On return, migrants 1) experience no continuity of employment or promotion, 2) often find that the skills they have acquired are not valued, 3) must use parallel labor market and cottage industry work to find employment, 4) find that, especially for women and young workers, the unstable employment experienced abroad also affects them on return, 5) find temporary employment or have difficulty in obtaining a job, 6) find both positive and negative views are held by employers concerning them, 7) find that family and connections are the primary means for finding jobs, and 8) discover return migration may not be an end since many second generation migrants will re-migrate for economic and social reasons. School performance, language mastery, social integration and access to training plague migrants and young nationals of similar socioeconomic background. They are unprepared to succeed in the new country and experience conflict of aspirations. First and second generation return migrants experience great frustration, since employment conditions are poor, and may be forced to migrate to a third country.     

Family composition preferences in a developing culture: The case of Taiwan, 1973

Abstract As fertility comes increasingly under voluntary control in a developing society, it can be argued that individual desires or preferences about children will become more salient and more significant for eventual fertility. Hence, the study of preferences is increasingly important as contraceptive use is extended and results in decreasing the number of unwanted births.(1) Further changes in fertility then depend on changes in preferences. The assumption is that people will at least try to achieve the families they want, if the means to do so are available. The fact that contraception is used at all is some evidence of the soundness of this assumption, although it should be recognized that family size desires operate in a complex of preferences, under varying degrees of conflict and control. To expect a one-to-one relationship between attitudes or preferences and overt behaviour would be simplistic.     

Program analysis using the client oriented cost outcome system.

The client oriented cost outcome system has been under development in Pennsylvania community and hospital programs since 1972. The system builds upon the behavioral and decision data generated with or on behalf of consumers. Flexibility for local program system design is permitted if the procedures of consumer intake, review, and termination document each consumer's (a) problems, resources, and goals, (b) overall functioning level in their ordinary community, and (c) services intended and rendered as related to (a), above. While the system's primary application is in providing feedback for local program quality assurance and evaluation procedures, aggregation of data permits program planning and evaluation at county, state, and federal levels in terms of (a) client demographic or diagnostic characteristics, and (b) program service characteristics and objectives.