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Focus Many courses on comparative communism traditionally make mention of artistic and political dissidents, but exclusive reliance on political science source materials often fails to demonstrate the variety of thought patterns within communist societies. A multi-disciplinary course which specifically draws attention to various "political dreams" can enable students to become more aware of the richness of thought patterns within communist societies.A January term in which students took part in one course for four weeks provided an ideal setting for teaching such a course. Through daily reading assignments and discussions class members discovered four main categories of dissident political dreams. First, a number of writers challenged the system of one-party control by advocating an effective separation of powers among governmental institutions such as the legislature and the courts.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [383]-439) and index. ; Mode of access: Internet.

A stable party system requires people to trust institutions, including parties, but in post-communist countries people have lived nearly all their lives in a political system that created distrust in reaction to aggressive attempts to mobilize support for the party-state. Comparative survey data from 10 post-communist countries show that the majority of electors are demobilized - that is, they distrust parties, do not identify with a party, the modal group is a don't know when asked to express a party preference, and committed partisans are only a quarter of the electorate. The result is that electoral support for parties is extremely volatile in comparison with election results in earlier waves of democratization. This does not immediately threaten the regime, however, for even though most people do not believe that they can influence government, even more importantly they feel greater freedom from the state, which cannot influence them as in the days of the communist party-state.

The degree of citizen trust & support for political parties was examined using comparative data from a series of sample surveys carried out in 10 postcommunist countries, 1993/94. Results showed that the majority of voters distrust parties & do not identify with them. "Don't Know" was the most common response when asked to express a party preference. The findings reflect a legacy of partisan distrust & indicate that party support is extremely volatile, although most respondents expressed clear ideas about economic preferences & felt greater freedom from states that can no longer influence them as they once did. The future of participatory democracies depends on the development of trustworthy parties with clear economic & social programs. 8 Tables, 27 References. J. Lindroth