Is Post-Socialism Still a Useful Concept for Thinking about Either Everyday Life or Political Economy - Coursework Example

Running head: Post socialism Is ‘post-socialism’ still a useful concept for thinking about either everyday life or political economy? Pallavi Bichali Academia Research Abstract This paper describes influence of post socialism on everyday life and political economy. It explains the background of socialism and reasons for its failure. An outline of the transformational consequences along with their impact on the society and economy has been mentioned with respect to two socialistic nations. The two nations exemplifying post socialistic features and its influences that have been considered are the central European nation and the Soviet Union. An analysis of the post socialistic influences on everyday life or on political economy and globalization and capitalism requires a thorough understanding of socialism and its features, including the factors that led to failure of socialism. Is ‘post-socialism’ still a useful concept for thinking about either everyday life or political economy? The post war period contained differences of the west and south socialist states which was largely accepted politically as three worlds, the first, second and third worlds. The political and economic roles were fundamentally different in each of these states. Another side of the socialism was seen in the Soviet Union which was entirely cut off from the rest of the world. This region strongly advocated the totalitarian Stalinist state concealing many realities of life. The region was characterized by a variety of geographies of socialism, over determined by relationships with other socialistic nations, point of central importance, nationality, local political and ideological debates, the role of non-party organizations (such as the Church) and myriad other social, economic, political and cultural formations. Soviet Union focused on keeping themselves along with Eastern Europe different from other countries. Besides this, the socialist societies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union differed from one another in significant respects like intensity, span, and effectiveness of central control, in the extent of popular support or resistance, and in the degree and timing of efforts at reform (Verdery, K, 1996; p 19-31). These differences eventually resulted in politicking in various stages of bureaucracy leading to socialism’s collapse. The fall was also due to shifts in the balance among factions that emerged within the parties. Capitalism and financial management measures in these states were also linked with collapse of socialism. With change in needs of capitalistic markets, socialist states failed to mobilize their capital which forced them to promote reforms in order to participate in the global economy and the control of capital flows within these states to satisfy their international financial interests. Verdery, K (1996) argues that the collapse of Soviet Union still holds value in terms of the electoral victories shown by certain European nations. He says that the post socialist moment offers at least three sets of opportunities, all having both scholarly and political significance. Firstly, to obtain an insight of post-socialism moment in terms of the market, capitalism, human involvement, formation of new nation states and costs entailed, etc. This means an overall understanding of the behavior of markets, society and human beings. Secondly, to look for the opportunities of privatization and capitalism, besides understanding the shadows of corruption and poverty that lies beneath. Thirdly, how the conditions of post-socialism related to other existing systems such as capitalism and sociopolitical organizations. The recent past has shown strong links with post socialism moments in aspects of capitalism, globalization and the political arena (Burawoy, M and Verdery, K.1999; 3). Post the revolution of 1989, a number of changes have surfaced in central Europe and the regions of Soviet Union such as reforms in the economy, birth of democracy in politics, and restructuring international relationships alongside advent of globalization. Huge efforts in studying the impact of post socialism on people of these countries and their reaction, whether resistance or acceptance, has been put in to learn about the transformation post-socialism brought with it (Burawoy, M & Verdery, K 1999; p 6). On the conceptualization of post-socialism, considering capitalism and socialism was the academic arena’s focus in bringing about the change what we call as organized transition. To explain this in a better manner, Hann, C has referred to this study as the modern anthropology (2002;1) which aims at documentation and analysis of human social arrangements in all their historical and geographical diversity. Owing to its vast and myriad nature, sociology cannot be explained in a particular framework. It includes economics, political science, anthropology, law, history, geography and sociology itself. Anthropological invasion into post socialism was also felt in many remote places, in Central Asia through which it was realized that the revolution had brought about disruption of social institutions and recognition of human rights. For example Hann, C (2002; 3) quoted that the Hungarian villagers realized that their ‘citizenship’ rights were being diminished; the Russians have demonstrated resistance to widening inequalities as explained by Hivon (1995). Such instances have also been experienced in the ethnographic field work of Roma communities (Bridger, S & Pine, F, 1998; 6) Consequences of post-socialism in terms of political and economic change evolved from a series of discussions and meetings during 1993-94. Studies concentrated on gender, ethnicity, and underclass in terms of survivors of the transition period in order to analyse the socialist societies post change. A variety of transformational consequences were observed in the East European and Soviet Union nations. Misunderstandings thrived between the East and the West which lead to a progress towards capitalism. The events also resulted in destabilizing and undermining the socialist regimes by certain groups, and most of the political events were influenced by each other. This period also paralleled an indication of disparaging promotion of western economic and political interests in Eastern Europe. The socialist regime showed its termination in the form of widespread local participation in political protests (Bridger, S & Pine, F 1998; 7). In the economic sector, the former Soviet Union in the post socialistic period has seen huge prosperity in capitalism in the form of affluent businesses, successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs, bankers etc which was once upon a time unimaginable. Unlike during the socialistic period, production and consumption vastly improved. Basically, failure in the production field during this period lied in its centralized planning system in which the non-coordination between the planners and executors led to its failure. This lack of proper coordination resulted in an imbalance between demand and supply of raw materials and incorrect figures with the center. This eventually led to improper distribution and shortages of materials, which Verdery, K (1996) refers to as ‘shortage of economy’. Besides this, another locus of attention in Socialism was production of files which literally means electronic transfer of information through the latest technology such as tape recorders, electronic typewriters, telegraphic machines without which sociopolitical existence was impossible. Hence, little or no importance was given to the real people in this age. Through this system, control over accurate information was least and power rested in means of production of files. The socialistic nature also hampered business in terms of sales due to their centralized resource accumulation system. The consumption arena too had its own demerits in socialism due to the procedures adopted. For example, Hungary and Poland concentrated on selling more things while Romania and Czechoslovakia accumulated things more. The socialistic countries concentrated more on quantity rather than quality which proved to be major drawback. Consumption in these nations also had political influence through rules set for state and village producers, prices and marketing methods. Another reason of politicizing consumption was forceful satisfaction of products and services on people (Verdery, K 1996; 19-31). While this was the situation, the post socialistic reforms brought about the capitalism also had shown its turmoil during the transformation period on the cultural workers, as capitalism’s focus on economy was not just on cultural aspect like socialism. Most of the challenges in the face of political struggle during the transformation were economic, leading to collapse of the East European and Soviet Union’s regime (Morss, S 2002; 263). Lenin’s imaginary future of Russian socialism can be found in Germany which means the Soviet state-forms built upon the economic forms of German state capitalism. Beilharz, P explains in relation to Lenin’s statement that ‘Socialism is inconceivable without large-scale capitalist engineering based on the latest discoveries of modern science. It is inconceivable without planned state organization, which keeps tens of millions of people to the strictest observance of a unified standard in production and distribution (1992; 24). Post socialism still forms an important aspect of everyday life as it has influenced politics, economy, society and culture of the nations. However, it becomes important to consider the challenges and concepts of the post socialist world. As mentioned earlier, there are many post socialisms which have to be considered for which conceptualizing post socialism is an extremely imperative measure. These situations are full of opportunities for theorizations, potential with beginnings, and all of this further enhanced by the ever-growing ideology of globalization. References Beilharz, P. (1992). Bolshevism. In Labours Utopias: Bolshevism, Fabianism, Social Democracy. Published by CUP Archive. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=dJc9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=Lenin,++1992+The+State+and+Revolution Bridger, S and Pine F. (1998). Introduction. In Surviving Post-socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Published by Routledge. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=wvtmCdfwwzoC&pg=PA14&dq=Bridger+Pine+1997+Surviving+post+socialism:+Local+strategies+and+regional+responses+in+East+Europe+and+the+former+Soviet+Union+Routledge#PPA7,M1 Burawoy, M and Verdery, K. (1999). Introduction. In Uncertain transition: ethnographies of change in the post socialist world. Published by Rowman and Littlefield http://books.google.co.in/books?id=A2fy9JEaXC4C&pg=PA306&dq=Burawoy+Verdery+1999+Uncertain+transition,+ethnographies+of+change#PPA3,M1 Hann, C. (2002).Introduction. In Post socialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia. Published by Routledge, 2002 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Cu--4UL2NMgC&pg=PA1&dq=Hann,+2002.+Post+socialism+ideals#PPA3,M1 Morss B, S. (2002). Lived Time/Historical Time. In Dreamworld and Catastrophe: the Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West 2000 Published by MIT Press http://books.google.co.in/books?id=4ZN1sAa5NPoC&pg=PT1&dq=Buck-Morss,+Susan+2000+Dreamworld+and+Catastrophe:+the+Passing+of+Mass+Utopia+in#PPA263,M1 Verdery, K. (1996) What Was Socialism, and Why Did It Fall? In What was Socialism and What comes Next? Princeton University Press. http://books.google.com/books/princeton?hl=en&q=what+is+socialism+and+what+comes+next&vid=ISBN9780691011325&btnG.x=10&btnG.y=11#PPA28,M1 Read More