[PEN-L:6219] Re: Why Nato needs to destroy Serbia

[Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol@xxxxxxx>]

At 04:05 PM 4/29/99 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:
>prevailed. The process of democratization was based either on historical
>experience (the Czech Republic from 1918 to 1938), the record of resistance
>to Communist rule (Solidarity in Poland), or the origins of a genuine
>multiparty system under Communist rule (Hungary). Neither Poland nor the



That is an example of writing about Eastern Europe that may sound good to
American audiences but is quite devoid of substance.  What the hell does
the quoted sentence mean?  If taken for its face value i.e. that the
current institutional design of Poland is based on the Solidarity movement
- it is patently false.  The current institutional design is based on two
developments, the institutional designed developed under central planning
and the interplay of occupational and professional interests under the
central planning regime (for the primer see Konrad and Szelenyi, _The
Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power_, New York: Haracourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1979; and Kennedy, _Professionals, Power and Solidarity in
Poland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

In general I find the whole piece being more in the tone of an after dinner
talk for foundation liberals than a serious institutional analysis.

Wojtek