Civil Society in Communist Eastern Europe: Opposition and Dissent in Totalitarian Regimes

Front Cover
ECPR Press, Apr 25, 2012 - Political Science - 184 pages

As well as promoting debates about liberal democracy, the dramatic events of 1989 also bought forth a powerful revival in the interest of the notion of civil society. This revival was reflected mainly in two broad tracts of literature. The first was primarily focused on the events surrounding the Solidarity movement in Poland and the tumultuous events of 1980-81. The second was concerned with the ‘Velvet Revolutions’ more broadly. Following the events of 1989, there appeared a number of works sharing the common central argument that civil society played a key role in the overthrow of these Communist regimes in 1989  

 

Contents

Totalitarianism
31
Czechoslovakia
49
The German Democratic Republic
79
Poland
107
Conclusion
139
Index
165
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

Dr Matt Killingsworth is a lecturer in international relations in the School of Government at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has previously held teaching positions at Latrobe University and the University of Melbourne. He has published widely on dissent and opposition in Communist Eastern Europe, transitional justice (lustration) in Czechoslovakia and Poland and political legitimacy in the Soviet Union and Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland. He is currently researching the relationship between the use of violence, order and justice in the international system.

Bibliographic information