Comparative Politics Commons^™

Attitudes Towards The Market And The State In Post-Communist Europe, David S. Mason

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This paper examines the level and sources of suppon for the market-oriented reforms in East-Central Europe and the relationship between these attitudes and political trust in the governments. The analysis is based on data collected in a common public opinion survey on social, economic and political justice implemented in the spring and summer of 1991 in eleven countries: Russia. Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany (east and west), Holland, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.

The survey results suggest some measure of caution and concern regarding the possibilities for a successful transition to market democracy in the former …

Public Opinion In Poland's Transition To Market Economy, David S. Mason

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Public opinion research has changed dramatically in the last ten years in Poland, in terms of its methodology, scope, and role in political change. During the "first" Solidarity era (1980–81), the genie of public opinion was let out of the bottle, and even martial law could not entirely put it back. Public opinion polling in the 1980s became more sophisticated and more common, and began to tackle increasingly sensitive political issues. Public opinion came to play a role in the political process, and to give the Polish population a sense of its own purpose and values. It also revealed the …

The Polish Party In Crisis, 1980-1982, David S. Mason

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Over the last three years, the Polish United Workers' Party has suffered a major crisis, the most substantial crisis of any Communist party in any Communist party state. The disintegration of the party was at least partly responsible for both the development of Solidarity in the summer of 1980 and the imposition of martial law in December 1981. The lack of trust in the party and its authoritarian and unrepresentative character led the workers to demand an institution more responsive to their own needs. But the growth of Solidarity during 1981 and the continuing disintegration and fragmentation of the party …