Bela Greskovits | Central European University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Bela Greskovits

Editorial correspondence All correspondence or correspondence concerning any general questions, a... more Editorial correspondence All correspondence or correspondence concerning any general questions, article submission or book reviews should be addressed to the

The GeoJournal Library, 2000

This is an essay in the short history of social thought on East European transformations1. I shal... more This is an essay in the short history of social thought on East European transformations1. I shall present the structure of the discourse on the likely economic, social and political dynamics under postcommunism. I shall also point to the historical and theoretical roots of the competing concepts and assess the contribution of transitology to our understanding of social change2. While

Cultures & conflits, 1995

Telos, 1995

In the first years of post-communist transition in Hungary, populism emerged as a hot topic acade... more In the first years of post-communist transition in Hungary, populism emerged as a hot topic academically and a veritable curse politically. No party has claimed to be populist, and none has avoided charges of populism levelled by one or another competitor. A demagogic populism seems to be always on the agenda, yet never actually present. In the East European context, however, populism has a peculiar meaning — similar to what it means in Latin America, but very different from what it means in the US. Far from referring to, e.g., Christopher Lasch's small proprietorship or an ethic of individual responsibility, it refers to a political strategy that seeks easy popularity by making unrealizable promises to the lower classes and frustrated domestic business interests.

Journal of Democracy, 2009

West European Politics, 2013

has to admit that the editors tried their very best in the final chapter of the book in which the... more has to admit that the editors tried their very best in the final chapter of the book in which they summarise the main findings, relating them to the hypotheses and formulating challenges for possible future research. All in all, the book presents an exceptional contribution to the study of populism, and despite some minor drawbacks it offers both an original theoretical framework and well-written in-depth case studies that illustrate the performance and impact of different kinds of populist parties in different institutional and democratic settings. The authors and the editors of the volume did a very good job: the book should not be missed by anybody who is interested in current party politics in general and in the relationship between populism and democracy in particular.

PROKLA. Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft

The articles explores how the way in which wars are being waged has changed since the 19th centur... more The articles explores how the way in which wars are being waged has changed since the 19th century. Its main focus is on ground warfare. Warfare, according to the thesis advocated in the article, has become industrialized within a few decades. One of the consequences was that since then only rarely battles have been lead face to face. Another result was a change in the way the military had to prepare for war. After presenting a short overview the articles proceeds to deal with objectification tendencies in regard to death, which also began to develop in pre-industrial periods.

Archives Europeennes De Sociologie, 2009

Journal of Democracy, Nov 1, 2007

During the past decade of European economic integration vastly worse standards have emerged in wo... more During the past decade of European economic integration vastly worse standards have emerged in work conditions, industrial relations, and social welfare in Eastern Europe than in the West. Area scholars explain this divide by labor weakness caused by the ideological legacy of communism, and do not problematize the impact of transnational capital. In contrast, this essay argues that the reason why the European social model has not traveled to the East is that its socioeconomic foundations, the industrial building blocks of the historical compromise between capital and labor, have not traveled either. In the West, the compromise had been rooted in capital-intensive consumer durables industries, such as car-manufacturing, and their suppliers. These sectors brought together organized and vocal labor with businesses willing to accommodate workers' demands, because for them labor had been less a problem as a cost-factor and more important as factor of demand. However, the main driving force of the eastward expansion of European capital has been the relocation of labor-intensive activities where business relies on sweating masses of workers, whose importance as consumers is marginal, and who are weak in the workplace and the marketplace. With this general conceptualization of how the emerging new European division of labor constrains the social aspects of East European market societies as a background, the essay studies the cases of Hungarian electronics and Slovak car industries in order to better understand how particular features of various leading sectors mediate the general pattern. 1 In the following we compare data from ten West European countries,

SSRN Electronic Journal

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Professor... more The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Professor Brigid Laffan, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research and to promote work on the major issues facing the process of integration and European society. The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes and projects, and a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration and the expanding membership of the European Union.

Slavic Review, 2000

... share almost a tradition of poor economic and political forecasts on Eastern European develop... more ... share almost a tradition of poor economic and political forecasts on Eastern European development ... responsible elite, an effective state apparatus, an organized civil society, a developedmiddle class, and ... is not enough to prove that democracy cannot take root in the East in any ...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Revue française de science politique, 2000

... Une explication possible pourrait justifier la récente réincarnation des perspectives d'... more ... Une explication possible pourrait justifier la récente réincarnation des perspectives d'analyse concurrentes de la ... S'appuyant sur le concept de « vision » élaboré par Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Heilbroner ... de visions, qui ne sont d'abord que des réincarnations de perspectives ...