Suchergebnisse

Ozinga reviews 'National Self-Identity in Contemporary Hungary' by Gyorgy Csepeli and translated by Mario D. Fenyo.

Ozinga reviews 'Housing Privatization in Eastern Europe' edited by David Clapham, et al; with Helen Kay.

The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Politburo (1992) is the definitive history and political analysis of this institution. Extensive use of new Soviet sources permitted the authors to provide a comprehensive analysis of the way in which the Politburo operated and a sociological examination of its membership.

AbstractThe Politburo since its formation in 1919 has been the ruling elite of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The traditional wisdom is that a blood purge is just around the corner and that a member's tenure is incalculably chaotic. This wisdom of "Evil Empire" is simply mistaken with respect to the Politburo. A statistical review of Politburo membership from 1919 to 1987 shows that the tenure of members is and was virtually the same as that found for elites in many democratic countries and that violence towards members and ex-members is and was rare, except during the Great Purge of 1936–1939. The traditional wisdom was never correct with respect to members' tenures and, with respect to blood purges, it was only correct during the Great Purge.

The Politburo of the Communist Party of the USSR is described as the "political elite par excellence." The mathematics of turnover & tenure for full members of the Politburo between 1919 & 1987 are analyzed, revealing that the patterns are comparable to those for Western cabinets & other political elites. Traditional wisdom on the role of violence within the Soviet elite is found to be inconsistent with actual experience, &, contrary to conventional wisdom, the turnover & tenure of Politburo members is found to be statistically calculable, & nearly the same as that for members of other elite groups within & outside the USSR. The traditional wisdom is thus quite misleading. 1 Appendix. F. S. J. Ledgister