- Docente: Ferenc Jozsef Miszlivetz
- Credits: 4
- SSD: SPS/03
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Interdisciplinary research and studies on Eastern Europe (cod. 8049)
Learning outcomes
The course will allow students to acquire a comprehensive picture of the political process that has led to democracy the socialist camp, how civil society has been constructed as an independent factor and what have been its limitations both legally and culturally so far. The students will therefore be acquainted about the process of elite transformation from socialist to democratic societies and the impact of EU enlargement on it.
Course contents
The course will focus on social and political change and the construction and de-construction of social trust in East Central Europe before and after 1989. The introduction to the course clarifies the conceptual framework of analysis and provides the historical background of social and political change in East Central Europe from the early 1980s to the present.
By the second half of the 1980s, in some of the East Central European countries – like in Poland and Hungary – democratic movements of workers and intellectuals such as Solidarnosc or Charter '77 were able to accumulate not only political solidarity, but also a significant amount of social trust based on country participation. Trust in democratic transition, as well as public actors and in democratic institutions, reached its peak by the time of the Velvet Revolutions. Civil society throughout the region became a key concept for nonviolent and democratic social and political change. The need for a “new social contract” became manifest as a metaphor of the accumulating social trust.
The new democratic institutions, however, became dominated and controlled by the old/new political classes, often referring to themselves as the “political elite.”
Most of the civil society initiatives turned to profesonal NGOs and/or became marginalized, coopted or controlled by the political parties and governments. As a consequence, vibrant and democratic civil societies evaporated to a large extent by the mid-1990s.
Social as well as public and institutional trust in democratic governments and institutions started to receed and reached a dangerously low level by the turn of the new millenium.
One of the paradoxes of transition is that the price of freedom in former Soviet bloc countries is the loss of public, social and institutional trust. Many of the countries of the region again find themselves in a social trap.
Against all of their known differences, individual countries of East Central Europe share common characteristics and trends. This became most visible after the 2004 enlargement which led to:
Political instability,
A low level of predictability of political actors,
Emerging populist movements, the politics of “values”,
Scapegoating,
Legitimizing xenophobia.
Erosion of trust in democratic institutions is one of the most fundamental common denominators.
This course will try to analyse and understand these complex and interrelated trends and seek to identify alternatives for deeply divided societies characterized by the lack of trust.
It will try to identify the necessary conditions for possible escapes from social and political traps in order to “reinvent” the countries and the region of East Central Europe.
During lectures and seminars, the bottom-up approach of civil society, and the top-down approach of institution-building will be used, keeping in mind Jean Monnet's warning that “everything starts with the people but ends up with institutions.”
Students will study the history of transition in East Central Europe, as well as theories of transition and civil society in the context of the unfolding global and European crisis.
Readings/Bibliography
Bellah, R.N., Madsen,R., Sullivan, Swidler W.M.A, and Tipton, S.M. (1985): Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Dahrendor, Ralf (1997): After 1989: Morals, Revolution and Civil Society. London: Macmillan, Oxford: St Antony's College.
European Values Study. http://www.europeanvalues.nl
Fukuyama, F. (1995): Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Hankiss, Elemér (1990): East European Alternatives. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hanley, E. et al., (1996): The Making of Post-Communist Elites in Eastern Europe: A Comparison of Political and Economic Elites in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Prague.
Inglehart, R. (1999): “Trust, well being and democracy”, in M.E. Warren, ed., Democracy and Trust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 88-120.
Konoridos. S.M. (2005): Networks, Trust and Social Capital: Theoretical and empirical investigations from Europe. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited
Lagerspetz, M., Trummal, A., Ruutsoo, R., Rikmann, E. (2004): Non-profit sector and the consolidation of Democracy. Studies on the development of Civil Society in Estonia. Tallinn: Kunst.
Miszlivetz, Ferenc (1999): Illusions and Realities: The Metamorphosis of Civil Society in a New European Space. Szombathely: Savaria University Press.
Seligman, A.B. (1997): The Problem of Trust. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Staniszkis, Jadwiga (1999): Post-Communism. The Emerging Enigma. Warsaw.
Stiglitz, Joseph E, Frefall (2010). W.W. Norton&Company, New York. London
Thorpe, Nick, (2009) '89 The Unfinished Revolution. Reportage Press, London
Wolchik, Sharon L. and Jane Curry, eds. (2008): Central and East European Politics from Communism to Democracy. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
The reading material can be downloaded from http://ferencmiszlivetz.com/courses/civil-society-democracy-and-social-trust-in-ece/
Dahrendorf, Ralf: After 1989. Morals, revolution and Civil Society MacMillan, London, 1997. (pp 1-77, and 78-168 ) Chapters 1-7.
Davutoğlu, Ahmet. “Turkey's Mediation: Critical Reflections From the Field”. In the Journal of Middle East Policy Council. Vol. 20, no. 1. (Spring 2013) Also available online at http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/turkeys-mediation-critical-reflections-field
European Values Study. http://www.europeanvalues.nl
Fukuyama, F. (1995): Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. London: Hamish Hamilton. (recommended)
Hankiss, Elemér (1990): East European Alternatives. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (recommended)
Horvat, Srećko and Štiks, Igor. “Radical Politics in the Desert of Transition”. (Introduction) In Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism. London: Verso Books, 2015. Available online at http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1905-radical-politics-in-the-desert-of-transition
Inglehart, R. (1999): “Trust, well being and democracy”, in M.E. Warren, ed., Democracy and Trust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 88-120. (recommended)
James, Helen. “Civil Society and the Duty to Dissent.” In The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law. Vol. 13, no. 3 (June 2011). Available online at http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol13iss3/special_1.htm
Konoridos. S.M.: Networks, Trust and Social Capital: Theoretical and empirical investigations from Europe. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2005 (recommended) Chapters 1-6 Chapters 7-12
Marinova, Dani M: When Government Fails Us: trust in post-socialist civil organisations. In Democratisation. Vol 18, Issue 1, (February 2011), pp. 160-183.
Michnik, Adam: The Rebirth of Civil Society: Public Lecture at the London School of Economics 20 October 1999.
Mihaylova, Dimitrina: Social Capital in Central and Eastern Europe: A Critical Assessment and Literature Review. Policy Studies Series, Central European University, 2004.
Miszlivetz, Ferenc: The Traces of Civil Society in a new European Space. In: Miszlivetz, Ferenc: Illusions and Realities : The Metamorphosis of Civil Society in a New European Space. – Szombathely, Savaria University Press, 1999. (pp 219 – 243)
Offe, Claus. “European Democracy is in a State of Emergency.” 6 March 2015. Also available online at http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/03/european-democracy-2/
Pehlivanova, Plamena: The Decline of Trust in Post-communist Societies: The case of Bulgaria and Russia. In Contemporary Issues. Vol.2 No.1. (2009), pp. 32-47.
Putnam, Robert (ed.): Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Review. Vol. 6, no. 2 (2012), pp. 8-27.
Seligman, A.B. (1997): The Problem of Trust. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (recommended)
Staniszkis, Jadwiga (1999): Post-Communism. The Emerging Enigma. Warsaw. (recommended)
Sztompka, Piotr: The ambivalence of social change. Triumph or trauma. Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, discussion paper, 2000.
Swain, Nigel: A Post-Socialist Capitalism. In Europe-Asia Studies, Special Issue: 1989 and Eastern Europe. Vol. 63, no. 9, (November 2011), pp. 1671-1695.
Thorpe, Nick, (2009) '89 The Unfinished Revolution. London: Reportage Press. (recommended)
Wolchik, Sharon L. and Jane Curry, eds. (2008): Central and East European Politics from Communism to Democracy. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. (recommended)
Teaching methods
Traditional Lecture, lectures, discussions, working group presentations
Assessment methods
written exams (academic essays), class participation
examination date of the written test: the last few days
Please note that those instructors who completed the examination programme in the past academic year can update the portal WebDocenti
Teaching tools
power point presentations, films, documents
Office hours
See the website of Ferenc Jozsef Miszlivetz