Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This distinctive book presents valuable new research on the political and economic elites that have emerged in Central and Eastern Europe since the demise of state socialism. Integrating theoretically informed analysis with fresh empirical data, the contributors significantly enhance our understanding of the evolution and interplay of elites in the post-communist period. Leading experts explore the elite circulations, differentiations, and competitions that now underpin- but in some countries also still inhibit-democratic stability and economic growth. A provocative concluding chapter assesses the century-long confrontation between elite theory and Marxism and where they stand today, after state socialismOs collapse.
Table of Contents
Introduction: elite configurations after state socialism / John Higley and Gyèorgy Lengyel -- Czech Republic: new elites and social change / Pavel Machonin and Milan Tucek -- Slovakia: elite disunity and convergence / John A. Gould and Soäna Szomolâanyi -- Hungary: elites and the use and abuse of democratic institutions / Rudolf L. Tèokâes -- Poland: the political elite's transformational correctness / Bogdan Mach and Wlodzimierz Wesolowski -- East Germany: elite change and democracy's "instant success" / Christian Welzel -- Serbia: the adaptive reconstruction of elites / Mladen Laziâc -- Croatia: managerial elite circulation or reproduction? / Dusko Sekulic and Zeljka Sporer -- Hungary: bankers and managers after state socialism / Gyèorgy Lengyel and Attila Bartha -- Russia: the oil elite's evolution, divisions, and outlooks / David Lane -- Bulgaria: economic elite change during the 1990s / Dobrinka Kostova -- Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland: presocialist and socialist legacies among business elites / âAkos Râona-Tas and Jâozsef Bèorèocz -- Epilogue: elite theory versus Marxism: the twentieth century's verdict / John Higley and Jan Pakulski.