Hi, everyone,
I have received this message from Prof. Sanderson.
It contains not only excellent bibliographic information
but also insightful comments. All of us interested
in world affairs should find it interesting.
Quee-Young Kim
Department of Sociology
University of Wyoming
Laramie, WY 82071
Kim@uwyo.edu
(307)766-5230
> Date sent: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:10:06 -0400 (EDT)
> From: s_sanderson <SKSANDER@GROVE.IUP.EDU>
> Subject: collapse of communism
> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Send reply to: SKSANDER@GROVE.IUP.EDU
> 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