Introduction

John S. Micgiel

Institute on East Central Europe

March, 1997

On February 28-March 1, 1997, Columbia University's Institute on East Central Europe and Harriman Institute hosted a conference entitled, "Perspectives on Political and Economic Transitions after Communism." The meeting consisted of six panels bringing together 26 graduate students from 13 institutions in the United States, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, representing a variety of disciplines including anthropology, education, history, international affairs, law, philosophy, political science, and sociology.

The conference used innovative teleconferencing technology to allow participants in Budapest, Hungary, to present their ideas on Environment and Ethnicity in the Danube Basin. Thanks to the assistance of Civic Education Project lecturers in Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, Slovak and Hungarian perspectives on the Gabcikovo Dam controversy were delivered by Robert Sramko of Comenius University in Bratislava, and Peter Jakab and Laszlo Deak of the Budapest Institute for Graduate, International, and Diplomatic Studies. Iuliana Stefanut of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj discussed the Romanian-Hungarian Basic Treaty. Their remarks, while not included here, initiated two days of intellectual exchange that resulted in this volume. Peer review helped the authors polish their essays, and the participation of established scholars such as anthropologist Corinna Snyder, political scientists Consuelo Cruz, Andrew Goodman, Peter Juviler, and Alexander Motyl, legal experts Stephen Marks and Gabor Rona, and this author, helped the discussion. Their contribution is most appreciated.

The first three presentations in New York dealt with Institutions and Political Parties in the Transition. They began with Katarzyna Stanclik's examination of the effects of the 1993 change in the electoral system in Poland. Contrary to the expectations based on the standard institutionalist approach to electoral laws and their political consequences, the electoral reform in Poland did not produce noticeable adjustments in the behavior of party leaders and voters. Stanclik argues that in the case of new democracies, the standard institutionalist approach has to be modified to account for the higher levels of voters' uncertainty resulting from the lack of reliable information on the distribution of political preferences among the electorate, lack of understanding of the mechanics of electoral law provisions, and lack of clear understanding of the ideological differences among the political parties. Due to this uncertainty, the first elections conducted under a new set of rules result in extremely high levels of disproportionality, which may have negative effects on democratic consolidation.

The role of constitutional choices for democratic development is discussed next. Oleg Protsyk analyzes both the legal framework and political practice of semipresidential political system. While concentrating on the Ukrainian and French cases Protsyk also incorporates the experience of other Western semipresidential regimes and new Central and Eastern European democracies in order to arrive at a set of general conclusions about the impact of the semipresidential institutional framework on the process of democratic consolidation.

In his article, Jason Wittenberg proposes an interpretation of the "return of history" in post-communist East Central Europe. He argues that whereas most views focus on elites and their strategic use of history and tradition, political continuity between pre- and post-communism can be understood at the level of society as well. In countries with some democratic experience before state-socialism, historical inheritances may be identified through a comparison of pre- and post-communist electoral behavior. Hungary is used as a running example. Wittenberg critically discuss current approaches to the study of pre-communist historical legacies, reformulates and defends the concept of historical legacy as continuity in general partisan orientation, and finally, proposes specific empirical indicators of continuity.

The second thematic panel dealt with Policy Issues in the Transition and started with. Yuri Dzhibladze's analysis of Russia's crisis in the observation of human rights as part of an overall hindering of democratic reforms. He provides an examination of policy issues that the movement has to address if it wants to play an important role in the process of democratization. These include: updating the movement's mission and taking a leadership role in the promotion of democratic values; overcoming confusion surrounding the issue of primacy of political and civil rights vs. economic and social rights; development of a clear-cut and simple agenda that is attractive to the public and responsive to its needs; and a shift in strategy from monitoring and fixing individual cases of violations to policy work and law enforcement. The essay also tackles organizational problems such as the professionalization of the movement and attracting support from lawyers, journalists, social workers, intelligentsia, academia and celebrities; building alliances with labor unions, mainstream media and political parties; developing cooperation with religious organizations; clarification of the movement's attitude toward interaction with the government; building coalitions with a broad range of NGOs and promoting monitoring of governmental practices by civic groups.

The activities of the state monopoly on arms exports, Rosvooruzhenie, to assist arms factories in marketing their production abroad is investigated by David R. Stone in his article on Russian arms exports after the Cold War. Rosvooruzhenie reestablished arms shipments to several of Russia's traditional customers in the Middle East and Asia and made Russia a major player on the world arms market once again. By placing the monopoly under the control of his chief bodyguard Aleksandr Korzhakov, President Yeltsin ensured that political conflicts over arms exports would continue, even after Korzhakov departure after the first round of the 1996 presidential elections. An alliance of interests between Rosvooruzhenie and the factory directors who profit handsomely from arms exports has maintained the system.

Magzhan Auezov examines Kazakhstan's economic structure and concludes that its rich natural resource base, in particular its significant hydrocarbons potential, is the main, if not the only, viable route to prosperity for that country. The government of Kazakhstan has taken steps to stimulate growth in oil exports by privatizing oil producing and processing enterprises and creating a favorable legal climate for foreign investment. These measures, however, are mostly short term and do not address the long term issues of sustainable development fueled by oil exports. Auezov then goes on to discuss the Tengizchevroil joint venture as a case study and identifies some of the issues that need to be addressed by a strategic long-term program of oil sector development. The advantages of a development strategy based on the export of hydrocarbons can outweigh the risks if oil revenues are efficiently managed by a capable government and state bureaucracy.

Communist education policies provide a backdrop for Andrew Hess' review of common theories about transition in Central and Eastern Europe, and he then considers how they might help us think about the specific conditions in education in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Key problems in education leading up to the Velvet Revolution included overcrowding, the chaotic integration of general and vocational education, and a "passive anarchy" that sapped the spirit of the educational system. Financial constraints played, and have continued to play, an important part in the structure of education in Czechoslovakia. Efforts at decentralization and at greater participation are jeopardized by the lack of existing social structures to support them. They may in fact encourage greater political and economic domination of the elites. "Economic individualism" and human capital in the form of education is increasingly valued as a "strategy for success." Hess finds that the liberal market model, which encourages private, decentralized control over institutions and a minimal social safety net, is the rising star in planning, due partly to the ideological appeal of the West and the financial clout of organizations like the World Bank and IMF.

The Rule of Law and the Transition was the theme of the third panel in New York. Barnabas Gero analyses the role of the Hungarian Constitutional Court in creating a legal framework for a market economy during the first years of Hungary's transition to a capitalist economy. He describes the institutional setup and procedural norms of the Court, reviews its most important decisions with respect to property, entrepreneurship, contract, and publicly provided social services, and presents a general scheme for evaluating the activity of constitutional courts and applies it to the economic decisions of the Hungarian Constitutional Court.

The legal framework in which an emerging democracy struggles to survive and prosper is the focus of Patricia Osmani's analysis. She finds that the November 1996 parliamentary and presidential elections hold positive prospects for the country's future and promise to synchronize further the Romanian legal system with trends in Western democracies. Osmani offers a brief description of the major political and legal events over the past seven years, and then analyzes those elements of the Constitution, Penal Code and cases which pose a problem for Romania's development of Western democracy. The author concludes with a predictive attempt to place Romania within the international community and suggest solutions for the country's most acute legal problems which, she observes, do not necessarily coincide with what foreign observers perceive as being vital for Romania's interests.

David P. Murgio addresses the question of whether to punish those guilty of human rights abuses during communist rule in East Central Europe, and finds that it is easy to mischaracterize the debate as being between those who want revenge and those who prefer to forgive. Murgio deconstructs the debate on this issue into its component parts and theoretical bases. While proponents of pursuing a policy of punishment state their claim in the stark moral language of retribution, the opponents of punishment rejoin with legal arguments centered on the notion of a "rule of law." The author weighs the arguments and concludes that the moral precept that crime deserves punishment is more compelling than a fear of upsetting the "collective legal system." He identifies the core components of a `rule of law' in an attempt to find a way to allow punishment while respecting these legal precepts. Having analyzed prospective decommunization policies in terms of the contradictory needs of meting out punishment and creating a system based on law, he concludes that traditional criminal prosecutions pass the test on the rule of law side, but most likely do not pursue justice far enough. Lustration policies, on the other hand, completely trample on the "rule of law" concerns. Truth commissions are judged to be the best possible way to bridge the impasse between "justice" and a "just legal order."

The penultimate panel was entitled Russia in Transition and began with Jason Lindsey's questioning whether or not the current political situation in the Russian Federation is largely shaped by the historical development of political legitimacy in the Soviet Union. Examining the thesis that the late Soviet period was dependent upon a traditionalist form of legitimacy, the author asks whether or not the same form of political legitimacy is operating now in the Russian Federation. If this is the case, he posits, then what explanatory power does recognition of this fact provide?

In the last few years, Thomas Buck writes, the stage has been set within the Russian Federation for an epic battle between different political forces, each of which has radically different visions of the direction in which Russia's economic and political transformation should be heading. These forces have already affected the process of citizenship and identity formation in the "new Russia." Choosing advisors from throughout the political spectrum, President Boris Yeltsin has effectively endorsed and institutionalized clashing "liberal," "statist," "neo-Soviet," and "Tsarist" conceptualizations of Russian identity. This has led to a state- and identity-building process ripe with contradictions and confusion. Buck posits that these clashing Russian "imagined identities" will continue to weaken Russia in its state- and democracy-building processes. As the war in Chechnya and the probable absorption of Belarus into the Russian Federation show, a Russian "empire prin-ciple" has outweighed Yeltsin's early attempts at institutionalizing a Russian "civic prin-ciple." In all but one identity paradigm presented by the author, the group outweighs the individual in the definition of citizenship. Individual-based citizenship, long-considered a foundation of Western democracy, remains an alien concept within the Russian Federation.

Russian financial-industrial groups (FIGs) as vehicles for stabilizing and routinizing Russia's finance capitalism, a system primarily relying upon social capital, and patronage capitalism linked to bureaucratic paternalism, are scrutinized by Natalia Dinello. Manipulation of economic, social and symbolic capital by FIGs and larger financial empires encompassing FIGs is interpreted as an effort toward legitimizing Russia's capitalism.

The last panel dealt with Political Elites and the Transition to Democracy. Gwynne Oosterbaan looks at Ukraine's difficult "triple" transition process: instituting a market-based economy, creating democratic structures and forging national and state identities. She finds that the ability of 200 Soviet-era politicians from Dnepropretrovsk to monopolize that complex process opposes any democratization attempt. More problematic is the direct competition between Dnepropetrovsk elites and Donbas elites. The competition between the two elites does not indicate the evolution of differing views of the polity or growing pains associated with democratization. Rather, the author posits, it is a continuation of subtle and overt attempts to monopolize economic and political power for mutually reinforcing purposes leftover from communist politics. For the longer term, the variety of post-socialist processes in Ukraine - characterized by cut-throat elite competition over scarce resources in the context of a disappearing civil society - raise the prospects of internal struggle and state collapse when most state and national structures are weak and unformed. Oosterbaan takes issue with the dominant theories in the democratization literature, which view the presence of previous elites as byproducts of pact-making by using rational choice and path dependent models in Central and Eastern Europe. She presents an alternative hypothesis which builds on the strengths of current transition theories, but ultimately relies on a cultural and historical framework to explain how political actors rely on a tool kit of "habits, skills and styles" to construct strategies of action. The author concludes by highlighting the significance of both intense elite competition and its anti-democratic side-effects for democratization in general.

The 1989 Roundtable Agreements in Poland are examined by Beata Pasek using a theoretical framework of elite settlement developed by Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Higley. The author traces the sudden, deliberate and successful negotiations between the communist regime and Solidarity resulting in Poland's first non-communist government, and compares it with the unsuccessful attempt at elite integration through political coalition following the 1993 parliamentary elections. She concludes that the failure to complete the elite settlement was caused by the lack of substantial, viable political milieus capable of concluding a reconciliation process by composing on questions of principle.

Finally, Thomas Ambrosio investigates the collapse of Czechoslovakia within Arend Lijphart's consociational democracy model. Utilizing James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock's deductive and rational choice theory of consitutional change, Ambrosio recasts Lijphart's framework into a deductive and testable form. He applies this reformulated theory to the case of Czechoslovakia and argues that, rather than accepting the high decision-making and indirect-external costs that would be borne by society under a consociational system, Vaclav Klaus, the winner of the 1992 election in the Czech region, chose the breakup of the state.

Readers may notice different usage of geographic terms and place names. Rather than standardize usage, each author's choice of proper names and terms, and use or non-use of diacriticals, has been honored within each chapter.

The conference at which the papers were delivered was organized by The Other Europe, the Institute on East Central Europe's student organization, and SOHI, the Student Organization of the Harriman Institute. Generous funding was provided by the President's and Provost's Student Initiative Fund, the School of International and Public Affairs' Student Association (SIPASA), the Harriman and East Central European Institutes, and by Columbia University's National Resouce Center for International Studies. The organizers would like to extend their appreciation to Dr. Colette Mazzucelli of the Civic Education Project in Budapest for her coordination of the teleconference in Budapest, and to the panel chairs and discussants for their time and effort. Special thanks are due: Barbara Gombach, John Gould, Elizabeth Karkus, Kevin E. Laney, Ron Meyer, Christian Nielsen, Gwynne Oosterbaan, Michaela Lee Ordahl, Vello Pettai, Reka Pigniczky, John Schiemann, Gabriel Topor, Jennifer Trotsko, and Sarah Wigglesworth. The institutional assistance of the Civic Education Project, Vidcom, Budapest Technical University, and the Columbia University Office of Communications Services in the provision of video services and equipment is gratefully acknowledged.

The publication of this volume was accomplished in a remarkably short time thanks to Avo Ora, Sherrill Stroschein, and Dawid Walendowski, who labored diligently under tight time constraints to prepare this collection of essays for publication. In many ways, the real editor of this book is Mr. Kevin Hallinan, Ph.D. Candidate in Columbia's Department of Political Science, and Program Coordinator at the Institute on East Central Europe. He coordinated the conference publicity and organization, supervised a large staff of able and talented graduate students in need of guidance, and spent countless hours standardizing the text, making it readable and producing camera-ready copy.

It is our collective hope that the reader finds our effort a useful addition to the literature on transition.