A noted American authority on urbanization in China presents a retrospective analysis of China's hukou (household registration) system on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its promulgation, reviewing the history of that system from a broad socio-political perspective. More specifically, the paper focuses on revealing trends in the development of the system over time and identifying many of its important ramifications for modern Chinese society, as well as on the impact of hukou on the country's industrialization, urbanization, and social and spatial stratification. The author argues that the hukou system now presents a major obstacle to China's quest to become a modern, first-world nation and global leader. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O180, O530, P200, R120. 2 figures, 3 tables, 111 references.

The Chinese Hukou System at 50

The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe.

The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe

Europe undivided: democracy, leverage and integration after Communism

How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business, Alena V. Ledeneva. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. 288 pp. $22.95. How Russia Really Works covers the informal practices in politics, business, media, and the legal sphere in Russia in the 1990s. It contributes to a growing body of research in comparative politics on informal institutions. Alena Ledeneva's main thesis concerns the "paradoxical role" of informal practices in post-Soviet Russia: They are both supportive and subversive of formal rules and informal norms; "they accommodate change but also represent resistance to change" (3). Ledeneva's concept of informal practices, equally grounded in formal rules and informal norms and focusing on players, helps to explain players' dual role. She defines informal practices as "regular sets of players' strategies that infringe on, manipulate, or exploit formal rules and that make use of informal norms and personal obligations for pursuing goals outside the personal domain" (22). The actors involved are closed circles of professional elites who share a body of know-how that is largely unavailable to the general population. Rather than assuming that actors invariably follow a set of identifiable unwritten rules, Ledeneva emphasizes that their strategies involve bending both formal rules and informal norms, or following some and breaking others, and thus illuminate their creativity and mastery in navigating between the two domains. Between 1997 and 2003, the author conducted sixty-two in-depth interviews with fifty respondents representative of economic elites and various people in possession of know-how. She controlled for regional variation to the best of her ability, with her findings mainly applicable to large cities. Chapters 2-7 constitute the empirical core of Ledeneva's book. Chapter 2 examines the informal practices associated with competitive elections in post-Soviet Russia, which spawned a variety of manipulative technologies referred to as "black PR" (chernyi piar). The author examines PR practices in Russia from a comparative perspective and argues that the specifics of PR practices in Russia, such as a greater scale of manipulation, stem from certain defects of formal institutions--weakness of political parties, lack of independent media, and disrespect for the law. A comparative perspective is also employed in chapter 3 in the analysis of compromising information (kompromat) to attack political opponents and business competitors. The prominence of kompromat in Russia is contrasted with lustration campaigns (the legal process of exposing collaborators with the secret police in previous regimes) in Central and Eastern Europe, revealing the continuity of political power in Russia. …

How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business

This paper seeks to build on ongoing work in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union—in geography and beyond—to think through the conceptualisation of post-socialism. The rationale for this is threefold. Firstly, we see a need to understand post-socialist conditions as they are lived and experienced by those in the region. Secondly, we seek to challenge the persistent tendency to marginalise the experiences of the non-western world in a discourse of globalisation and universalisation. Thirdly, we identify a need to ask how the conditions of post-socialism reshape our theorising more widely. Centring our analysis on history, geography and difference, we review a wide range of perspectives on the socialist and post-socialist, but argue for a strategic essentialism that recognises post-socialist difference without eclipsing differences. In outlining how we might understand history, geography and difference in post-socialism, we draw on key theorisations from post-colonialism (such as the articulation of the post- with the pre-, the relationship to the west, the rethinking of histories/categories, the end of the post) and outline post-socialisms that are partial and not always explanatory but nevertheless important.

History, Geography and Difference in the Post-socialist World: Or, Do We Still Need Post-Socialism?

Preface, Introduction: Crisis and change in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, Part I. The 'Balkanization' of south-eastern Europe: from ancient times to the First World War, Introduction to Part I: The Process of 'Balkanization', 1. South-Eastern Europe before the Ottomans, 2. The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, 3. The Seeds of Ottoman Decline, 4. The Decay of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Balkan 'National' States, Part II: East-Central Europe prior to the Habsburg ascendancy, Introduction to Part II: The Disputed Roots of East-Central Europe, 5. The Vicissitudes of Poland, 6. The Rise and Decline of the Kingdom of Hungary, 7. The Kingdom of Bohemia and the Hussite Heritage, Part III: East-Central Europe during the Habsburg ascendancy, Introduction to Part III: The Importance of being Austria, 8. The Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 9. An Empire in Crisis: East-Central Europe and the Revolutions of 1848-49, 10. Capitalism and the Seeds of Social Revolution in Austria and Hungary, 12. War, Nationalism and Imperial Disintegration, Part IV: Eastern Europe between the two World Wars, Introduction to Part IV: The New Political Order in Eastern Europe, 13. The Aftermath of the First World War, 14. The 1930s Depression and its Consequences, 15. The Plight of the Peasantry, 16. The Failure of Democracy, 17. The Lure of Fascism, 18. Fascism and the Communists' New Road to Power in Europe, Part V: In the shadow of Yalta: Eastern Europe since the Second World War, Introduction to Part V: The East-West Partition of Europe, 19. The Second World War and the Expansion of Communist Power in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, 20. National Roads to Socialism, 21. From the Crisis of 1968 to the Revolutions of 1989, 22. Eastern Europe since 1989, 23. The New East European Economies: What is to be done?, 24. Conclusion: A Faltering Return to a Mean-Spirited Europe, Bibliography, Index.

A history of Eastern Europe

1. Conceptual Frameworks: 'The Balkans' and the Nature of Post-Communist Democratization and Economic Transformations 2. Albania: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 3. Bulgaria: The Devil has all the Best Tunes 4. Romania: The Road to the EU is Paved with Good Intentions 5. Croatia: Paying a Price 6. Serbia: From Serbdom to Pariahdom 7. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Travails of Coexistence 8. Macedonia: Towards a Bi-National State? 9. Montenegro: To Be or Not to Be? 10. Kosova: The Forging of a Nation and a State 11. The Post-Communist Balkans, the West and the EU: Major Challenges and Contradictions between Rhetoric and Reality

The Balkans: A Post-Communist History

Communism and development

Europe's post-communist states have experienced widely differing degrees and trajectories of democratisation and (economic as well as political) liberalisation. Outcomes have frequently been explained and/or conceptualised in cultural or ‘civilisational’ terms – i.e. mainly with reference to ‘culturalist’ or ‘essentialist’ conceptions of allegedly prevalent ‘mentalities’, attitudes, belief-systems, value-systems and so-called ‘political cultures’. This paper highlights the major objections to explanations and conceptualisations of this kind and advocates an alternative explanatory and conceptual framework that draws on Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy ( 1993 ) while also taking on board various critical responses to his highly influential ideas and to much of the thinking and research he has precipitated. Making Democracy Work (MDW) is most famous for its use and elaboration of conceptions of social capital, trust, norms of generalised reciprocity, networks ...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15705850701322335

‘Making democracy work’ in the eastern half of Europe: Explaining and conceptualising divergent trajectories of post-communist democratisation

Over recent years, a series of challenges including Brexit and the rise of Euroscepticism, have manifested in landmark moments for European integration. First published as a special issue of Global Discourse, this edited collection investigates whether these crises are isolated phenomena or symptoms of a deeper malaise across the EU.

Robert Bideleux

Papers

A history of Eastern Europe

The Balkans: A Post-Communist History

Communism and development

‘Making democracy work’ in the eastern half of Europe: Explaining and conceptualising divergent trajectories of post-communist democratisation

The Limits of EUrope