This is in response to Quee-Young Kim's questions concerning the collapse of
communism.
In the 3rd edition of my MACROSOCIOLOGY, I have a discussion of the collapse of
communism on pp. 314-21. I review a couple of explanations of the collapse, in
particular that offered by Randall Collins and David Waller, which is a
Weberian theory relying on the notion of the overextension of the Soviet
empire. I advance my own interpretation by way of two main points: The Soviet
economy was severely hampered after a time (i.e., about 1975) because of its
extreme bureaucratic centralization, and thus massive economic problems were
produced; and the constraints on the Soviet economy exerted by the surrounding
capitalist world-economy also produced severe economic problems. The
combination was deadly.
To understand the collapse you need to know something about the economic and
political reforms initiated by Gorbachev after 1985. I discuss these on pp.
188-195, and in the later discussion (pp. 314-21) the two parts of the overall
argument are linked.
References to other important discussions of the collapse of communism can, of
course, be found in my discussions. I particularly recommend the analyses by
Collins and Waller and by Krishan Kumar. The latter has written an extremely
insightful article on the collapse.
This should get you started. Your reaction to my argument is quite welcome.
Stephen Sanderson