Table Of ContentVALUES AND POLITICAL CHANGE
IN POSTCOMMUNIST EUROPE
Values and Political
Change in Postcommunist
Europe
William L. Miller
Edward Caird Professor of Politics
University of Glasgow
Stephen White
Professor of Politics
University of Glasgow
and
Paul Hey wood
Professor of Politics
University of Nottingham
flfl
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
M
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-64283-X
m
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-21144-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, William Lockley, 1943-
Values and political change in postcommunist Europe / William L.
Miller, Stephen White, and Paul Heywood.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-312-21144-9 (cloth)
1. Political culture—Europe, Eastern—Public opinion.
2. Political culture—Russia (Federation)—Public opinion.
3. Europe, Eastern—Politics and government—1989 Public opinion.
4. Russia (Federation)—Politics and government—1991 Public
opinion. 5. Post-communism—Europe, Eastern—Public opinion.
6. Post-communism—Russia (Federation)—Public opinion. 7. Public
opinion—Europe, Eastern. 8. Public opinion—Russia (Federation)
I. White, Stephen, 1945- . II. Heywood, Paul. III. Title.
JN96.A91M55 1997
306.2'094'091717—dc21 97-38376
CIP
© William L. Miller, Stephen White and Paul Heywood 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
Printed in Great Britain by
The Ipswich Book Company Ltd
Ipswich, Suffolk
Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Tables xiv
List of Figures xxii
Political Values in Postcommunist Europe 1
What are political values? 1
The value of values 3
Political values in the FSU/ECE 4
A red-brown alliance 4
Lines of division 6
1. Between the FSU and ECE 7
2. Between Catholic and Orthodox cultures 10
3. Between Europe and Asia 12
4. Between former imperial powers and the rest 14
5. Between successfully managed transitions
and the rest 17
6. The iron curtain 17
The vanguard 18
Potential counter-revolutionaries 21
Conclusion 28
Part I INTRODUCTION 31
1 Standing on the Ruins of Empire 33
The leading role of the Communist Party 33
The struggle to impose communist values 35
Resistance, reform and revolt 38
The legacy of older empires 41
2 Communism and After 48
Political change from below 49
v
VI Contents
Political change from above 54
A wider perspective 62
3 Methodology and Context 67
Eleven FSU/ECE surveys 67
Questionnaires 68
Weighting 70
Searching for evidence of cultural legacies 70
The political context of the surveys 73
Part O PERCEPTIONS 81
4 A Fond Farewell? 83
Belief in communist ideals 83
Good and bad features of the communist regime 84
Personal experience of oppression 88
Our country's best time this century 89
Forgiveness 91
Conclusion 93
5 A Brave New World? 94
Economic decline 94
Comparing regime performance 95
Psychological participation 96
Active participation 97
The development or decay of civil society 97
Lack of trust in the institutions of democracy 100
Unfair officials 104
Conclusion 105
Part HI VALUES 107
6 Socialism after Communism 109
Contents vii
Support for a market economy 109
The role of the state in running industry 110
The role of the state in managing social welfare 112
State responsibility for culture 113
Equality 115
Composite indicators 117
Conclusion: The pattern of commitment to socialist values 120
Socialist values and the market economy 122
External and Internal Nationalism 124
External nationalism 125
Centralist nationalism 128
Cultural nationalism 129
Composite indicators 135
Conclusion: The pattern of commitment to nationalist values 136
Nationalist values in practice 138
Liberal Values 140
Public doubts about democracy 142
Freedom of information 143
Order and authority 145
Tolerance and intolerance 146
Rights to protest 149
Government above the law? 151
Composite indicators 152
Conclusion: The pattern of commitment to liberal values 154
Liberal values in practice 155
Popular Control: Direct or Representative Democracy? 159
Populism 160
Competitive elections 162
Parties 167
Contents
The dimensions of party sympathy 171
Composite indicators 174
Conclusion: The pattern of commitment to popular control 175
Entrepreneurial MPs 177
Old apparatchiki without communist ideals 179
Optimistic MPs 180
Not much more confidence than the public in
postcommunist institutions or officials 183
Anti-socialist former communists 185
Conclusion: The pattern of socialist values
amongst MPs 190
The Nationalist, Liberal and Democratic Values of MPs 191
Nationalist values 191
Moderate but firm external nationalism 192
More devolutionary yet less separatist 193
Less culturally conformist 193
The idea of democracy 196
Liberal values 197
Freedom of information 198
More insistent on obedience to the law 199
More tolerant 199
More support for rights to protest 201
More support for law bound government 201
Popular control values 205
Less populist 205
More pro-elections 205
More pro-party 208
Conclusion: The patterns of nationalist, liberal and
democratic values amongst MPs 209
A Red-Brown Alliance of Ideas? 212
Political sophistication: a problem of interpretation 212
The coherence of attitudes towards socialist, nationalist
and liberal values 214
Contents IX
A red-brown alliance: the allegation 217
A positive alliance between socialism and nationalism? 218
A negative alliance: socialism and nationalism against
liberal values? 221
Socialist, nationalist and liberal attitudes to popular
control 223
Conclusion 225
Part IV INFLUENCES ON VALUES 229
13 Winners and losers 231
236 Individual winners and losers 231
The losing classes 236
Lost generations 241
Gender and marital status 245
The military-industrial complex 247
Conclusion 248
14 Adaptable Minds 252
Education 253
Religiosity 259
Cosmopolitan values 263
Conclusion 264
15 Land, Language, Culture and Nationality 268
States and nations in the FSU/ECE 268
Russia 269
Land in Russia 271
Nationality and language in Russia 272
The interaction of land and nationality in Russia 274
Religious sects in Russia 274
Russia: conclusions 276
Ukraine 276
Land in Ukraine 279
