Post-Communist Democratization and the Practice of Sociology in Central and Eastern Europe1

10 Post-Communist Democratization and the Practice of Sociology in Central and Eastern Europe1 Janusz Mucha and Mike F. Keen INTRODUCTION: STUDYING CENTRAL be that it did not anticipate the collapse of AND EASTERN EUROPE AND ITS the Communist system. However, generally SOCIOLOGY speaking, political restrictions on the topics addressed and on the publication of find- For a little more than a decade now, since the ings were very strong, although sometimes very beginning of the post-Communist era in applied in an uneven manner. Therefore, it Europe, we have been systematically inves- was very difficult, and in many countries tigating the transformations of sociology in virtually impossible, to study empirically and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Our own theoretically the phenomena which would approach has been a combination of the ‘emic’ lead to such a transformation. It was impossi- and ‘etic’ (insider’s and outsider’s observa- ble to freely publish the findings and to start a tions). We have been interested in the ways public discussion on actual social processes. sociology in individual countries and in the What is perhaps more interesting is that even whole region was shaped by structural condi- free Western political sciences and sociology tions and in the ways sociology tried to influ- did not anticipate the collapse. ence the development of individual societies. We would like to make two qualifications In the early 1990s, we began a research before continuing. First, in this paper we project on the history of sociology of the region do not intend to deal in depth with compari- starting with the so-called ‘Khrushchev’s sons between Western and Eastern European thaw’, to the beginnings of the post-1988 sociology, then and now. Second, we do not transformations. The results were published believe that sociology, and particularly macro- in the US in 1994 (Keen and Mucha, 1994), sociology, is a ‘natural science’ that could pre- and in Poland in 1995, in Polish. One of cisely predict future events. We believe that only the ‘failures’ of sociology of the region some trends can be extrapolated. What we mean prior to the transformation is considered to by the ‘failure’ to anticipate transformations is 99781847874023-Chap10.indd781847874023-Chap10.indd 112929 99/2/09/2/09 55:06:04:06:04 PPMM 130 THE ISA HANDBOOK OF DIVERSE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITIONS that the sociology of 1956–89 was not able to Historically, some countries had developed recognize the tensions within the European fully, very complex social structures and Communist societies and their potential for national cultures, and some were rural and radical social change. peasant societies. In the eighteenth and nine- Many structural and often dramatic changes teenth centuries, some were dominated by took place during this period. Some political autocratic orthodox Russia, some by equally units ceased to exist, i.e., the German Democ- autocratic Islamic Turkey, others by politi- ratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and cally and culturally tolerant Roman Catholic the Soviet Union. New nation-states emerged Austria–Hungary. Still others were parti- out of the ruins of old ones, and even now the tioned between the then superpowers. Some nation-building processes are not complete in had more, some less developed economies. the region. The futures of Bosnia Hercegovina In some, the dominant religious organization and Serbia’s historic province of Kosovo, supported political organizations of foreign populated overwhelmingly by Albanians and origin, in others, it opposed them and rather now practically a UN protectorate, of Albania, supported the national culture. Macedonia, and even of Ukraine (with her still After 1948, not only the level of economic strong division between the Russian-speaking growth but also the character of economic eastern part and the Ukrainian-speaking west- structure differentiated these societies. In ern part) are not clear. Other dramatic changes particular, the presence of small-scale private have occurred within individual Eastern and economic activity in agriculture, manufac- Central European nations. These include rapid turing, and the service sector seems to have and often superficial political liberalization been important. In some, religious culture and democratization, economic transforma- and institutions opposing the Communist tion, an increasing role of market mechanisms ideology were strong, in others they were and free competition, as well as their conse- not. In some, terror played an important role quences: very high unemployment and the in public life until 1989, in others politi- growing visibility of poverty. We have wit- cal domination was exercised using milder nessed rapid Westernization (and particularly means. Americanization) of the popular culture, and In Poland, sociology had a very long and a reappearance of strong ethnic tensions and rich, non-Marxist intellectual and institu- overt ethnic conflicts. tional tradition. In other countries of the We must also recognize changes result- region sociology actually emerged from ing from world transformations: cultural and Marxist historical materialism.2 Even in economic globalization with its positive and Poland, however, where it was possible to negative aspects, the Internet and the commu- continue non-Marxist traditions in purely nications ‘revolution’, and most recently the theoretical social sciences, it was difficult to war against terrorism with all its ramifications, engage in public discussion with Marxism including new answers to the old dilemma and with Communism. ‘security versus freedom’ and the redefinition of During the period from 1948 to 1989, some ethnic groups’ struggle for sovereignty. to some extent the situation in CEE resem- bled that of countries under colonial and authoritarian rule. Whether they had the internationally recognized ‘political sover- HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY IN CENTRAL eignty’, as in the case of Bulgaria, Hungary AND EASTERN EUROPE POST-WORLD or Czechoslovakia, or did not, as in Estonia WAR II and Latvia, most societies in this region were totally dependent on the Soviet metropolis Societies and sociologies of CEE dif- in the areas of domestic and international fered from each other in many respects. politics, economy, and culture. Exceptions were 99781847874023-Chap10.indd781847874023-Chap10.indd 113030 99/2/09/2/09 55:06:04:06:04 PPMM POST-COMMUNIST DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE PRACTICE OF SOCIOLOGY 131 Albania, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Individual 2. What changes had occurred in the teaching freedom was not respected. There was no par- of sociology, including new curricula and text- liamentary democracy in the Western sense of books? the term. Although the region differed from 3. What were the relations between academic those of African or Asian colonies, the popula- sociology on the one hand and public and private research centers on the other? tion and culture (including social sciences) in 4. Which aspects of the socioeconomic transforma- the socialist ‘metropolis’ of the Soviet Union tion were considered to be the most important was as politically suppressed as those of the research problems? peripheries or semi-colonies. 5. Was nationalism and ethnicity an important Terror, indoctrination, and very strict polit- research problem? ical control made it barely possible either 6. What happened to the former research and in the Soviet Union or in the rest of CEE to teaching cooperation with other CEE scholars? develop free culture, including freedom in the 7. What did research and teaching cooperation teaching of sociology, uncensored research with Western sociology look like? projects, and uncensored publications. Quite 8. Were sociologists involved in local and national a few sociologists were jailed or expelled politics? 9. Were sociologists considered and consulted as from their countries, and the social sci- experts by the governing bodies at local and ences were placed under very strict surveil- national levels? lance. Political authorities needed descriptive 10. How was research and teaching financed? social science and the information it might provide. Occasionally, they used this infor- We believe that the ‘sociological transformation in public administration. But they did mation’ was not only a reaction to recent not allow sociology to serve as a conscience structural changes in the whole region and of society and to play reflexive and critical in individual societies, but also influenced functions other than revealing to the rulers, by the different historically rooted cultures, but not to the public, the consequences of the economic systems that existed before their policies. Sociology, therefore, influ- Communism and during the period 1948– enced public life, and was respected by some 88, and the ways in which the Communist representatives of the political authorities; system was actually administered in indi- but free research teaching, and publication vidual countries. were forbidden. It was not possible in the reports we even- tually received to devote as much attention to each of these issues that they deserved. In addition, we cannot adequately address SOCIOLOGY IN CENTRAL AND all of those here, in a paper as short as this. EASTERN EUROPE SINCE 1989 Therefore, in this presentation, we concen- trate on only three aspects of the post-1989 In the year 2000, we began a second phase transformation of sociology in the region. of our project, to investigate the achieve- Other issues are discussed in Keen and ments and failures

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