Book review: Socialist escapes: breaking away from ideology and everyday routine in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989

"Socialist Escapes: Breaking Away from Ideology and Everyday Routine in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989." Cathleen Giustino, Catherine Plum and Alexander Vari (eds.). Berghahn Books. April 2013. --- During much of the Cold War, escape from countries in the East Bloc was a near impossible act. There remained, however, possibilities for other socialist escapes, particularly time away from party ideology and the mundane routines of everyday life. The essays in this volume seek to examine sites of socialist escapes, such as beaches, camp sites, and concerts, and explore the effectiveness of state efforts to engineer society through leisure. Cultural historians and sociologists will appreciate this fascinating glimpse into cultural life under state socialism, writes Eleanor Bindman

Book review: power and policy in Putin’s Russia by Richard Sakwa et al.

In this analysis of Putin’s eight years as president between 2000 and 2008, an international group of leading academics examine Putin’s leadership, ideology and the power of corruption. Eleanor Bindman recommends this in-depth study as a useful resource for anyone wishing to learn about the way in which the Russian political system operated and in many ways continues to operate in more detail

Book review: the political and social construction of poverty: central and East European countries in transition by Serena Romano

In The Political and Social Construction of Poverty, Serena Romano provides an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful account of the changes in welfare provision and government attempts to deal with poverty in the Central and East European region from the Soviet period up to the contemporary period. Eleanor Bindman concludes that this volume will be of interest to both academics and domestic and international policymakers concerned with the persistent problems of welfare reform, poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Soziale Rechte, Sozialpolitik und Zivilgesellschaft in Russland

Zum historischen Vermächtnis der Sowjetunion gehören bis heute die hohen Erwartungen vieler Menschen in Russland an den Staat als Garanten sozialer Rechte und sozialer Sicherheit. Auch der Zerfall des sowjetischen Wohlfahrtssystems in den 1990er Jahren stärkte diese Erwartungen. Der hybride und oft lückenhafte Zustand des russischen Sozialstaats hat jedoch Raum für gesellschaftliche Organisationen geschaffen, die die Auswirkungen staatlicher Sozialpolitik abzufedern versuchen. Sozial-orientierten NGOs gelingt es dabei oft, soziale Dienstleistungen bereitzustellen und sich zugleich für die Interessen ihrer Klientel einzusetzen. Daher bietet sich das Feld der Sozialpolitik an, Aushandlungsmechanismen in autoritären Staaten jenseits von Repression oder Kooptierung zu ergründen

Economic and social rights within EU-Russia relations: a missed opportunity?

In recent years the EU’s strategy towards promoting human rights in Russia has been the focus of considerable internal and external attention, much of it critical. Despite longstanding programmes for funding human rights projects in Russia and the launch of biannual EU-Russia human rights consultations in 2005, the subject of human rights remains contentious within EU-Russia relations. One striking aspect of the EU’s policy towards Russia is its focus on issues such as prison reform, freedom of speech and prevention of torture which can broadly be characterized as civil and political rights issues. The purpose of this thesis is to explore an area of human rights theory and practice which tends to receive far less attention, namely economic and social rights issues such as the right to housing, health, access to social security and workers’ rights. Utilising data gathered from interviews with EU and Member State officials and Russian NGOs and a discourse analysis of EU policy documents on human rights, the thesis examines how EU institutions, Member States and Russian civil society actors conceptualise the meaning and significance of economic and social rights in both a general and specifically Russian context. The study situates these understandings of economic and social rights and the State’s role in guaranteeing them in Russia in the historical context of the Soviet legacy of emphasizing such rights over civil and political rights. It also highlights enduring public expectations of what the State should provide and the policy of the various presidential administrations since 2005 of reasserting the State’s role in relation to the apparent realisation of economic and social rights through social service provision. It explores the differing approaches taken by human rights and more socially-oriented NGOs to engagement with various State structures and State-affiliated structures such as the regional human rights ombudsmen, and the privileged position Russian human rights NGOs appear to enjoy in terms of their relationship with the EU. The thesis argues that the EU’s closeness to this very specific type of civil society organisation and its apparent lack of internal and external consensus on the importance of economic and social rights issues hinders its ability to raise issues relating to these rights in its interactions with Russia. At the same time, the fact that economic and social rights continue to enjoy a relatively high degree of visibility and importance in Russia make cooperation on economic and social rights issues an area where more fruitful engagement on human rights could take place between the EU and Russia

Civic Participation in a Hybrid Regime: Limited Pluralism in Policymaking and Delivery in Contemporary Russia

Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2017. This article asks why the Russian government has developed new avenues for public participation in policymaking and delivery and assesses the extent to which these avenues introduce pluralism into these processes. Drawing on 50 interviews with individuals and citizens’ groups involved in either public consultative bodies or socially oriented NGOs, the article demonstrates the government’s desire to harness the knowledge and abilities of citizens and civic groups in place of state departments perceived to be bureaucratic and inefficient, while controlling and curtailing their participation. Arguing that these countervailing tendencies can be conceptualized as limited pluralism, a category elaborated by Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, we show that citizens and civic groups are able to influence policy outcomes to varying extents using these mechanisms

Book review: after third way: the future of socialdemocracy in Europe

Electorally marginalised, seemingly ideologically exhausted and often out-of-step with the contemporary zeitgeist, many commentators believe that European social democracy is currently in profound need of revision and renewal. This book marks a serious attempt to forge the intellectual backbone of a renewed social democracy fit for the twenty-first century. Bringing together leading academics, political thinkers and policy experts, it offers a new and original perspective on ideological and policy innovation and will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in the future of social democracy

Social movements and political change in Belarus in 2020 and after

This chapter explores the extent to which civil society organisations (CSOs) and social movements in Belarus mobilised in 2020 and contributed to the mass protests and other major political developments which took place there. In some respects, the fact that these types of organisation mobilised was an unexpected development as civil society and social movements in Belarus and many other post-Soviet and post-Communist societies had for many years been seen within the dominant research narrative as relatively weak and marginalised. Yet a reassessment of post-socialist civil society is long overdue and there is a need to investigate the newer hybrid forms of formal and informal activism and organisation seen in many countries and contexts across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). These differ from the more ‘NGO-ized' model of civil society which dominated the field until the 2010s and was often criticised for being elitist and out of touch with the needs of the people it claimed to represent. As a result, it is important to analyse the ways in which traditional Belarusian CSOs and newly formed social movement organisations mobilised existing activists and new members, and participated in both large- and small-scale protests against the incumbent regime from 2020 onwards