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Article: Understanding political change in post-Soviet societies: A further commentary on Finifter and Mickiewicz. (response to Ada W. Finifter, American Political Science Review, vol. 90, p. 138, March 1996)
- Article from:
- American Political Science Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Cambridge University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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At the end of the 1980s scholars were challenged to explain the dramatic political changes occurring in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The rapid disintegration of the USSR raised a host of questions about why the collapse occurred and what political and economic arrangements would eventually replace the old order.
Among the theoretical arguments offered in explanation for the rapid changes prior to the availability of data was a theory of modernization effects.(1) This theory suggested that while the events of the late 1980s and early 1990s implied sudden and rapid social and political change, the underlying explanations for the change were more long term ...