My dissertation situates at the intersection of communication studies and political sciences under the umbrella of the interdisciplinary field of collective memory. Precisely, it focuses on the use of the communist past by political actors to gain power and legitimacy, and on the interplay between news media and politics in shaping a national identity in post-communist Romania. My research includes the analysis of the media representations of two categories of events: the anniversaries of the Romanian Revolution and the political campaigns for presidential/parliamentary elections. On the one hand, the public understanding of the break with communism plays an important role in how the post-communist society is defined. The revolution as a schism between the communist regime and a newborn society acts like a prism through which Romanians understand their communist past, but also the developments the country has taken after it. On the other hand, political communication is operating on the public imaginary of the past, the present and the future. The analysis of the political discourses unfolded in the news media shows how the collective memory of the communist past is used to serve political interests in the discursive struggle for power and legitimacy. Such an investigation allows for a deeper understanding of the identity formation in transitional societies in Eastern Europe. The historical discourse analysis of 5378 texts, selected from four national Romanian newspapers during the first two decades of post-communism (1990 - 2009), shows how the emergent corrupted political class which replaced the communist nomenclature shaped the understanding of communism that would characterize all members of the Romanian society as victims, thus impeding an effective investigation of personal and collective guilt. It also shows that the lack of clarity regarding the Romanian Revolution (as the starting point of a new society) contributed to a crisis of legitimacy in post-communist Romania so that the Romanians neither could forget the past, nor resolved its problems twenty years after the fall of communism. / Media & Communication

No / Can the Balkans ever become a peaceful penisula like that of Scandinavia? With enlightened backing, can it ever make common cause with the rest of Europe rather than being an arena of periodic conflicts, political misrule, and economic misery? In the last years of the twentieth century, Western states watched with alarm as a wave of conflicts swept over much of the Balkans. Ethno-nationalist disputes, often stoked by unprincipled leaders, plunged Yugoslavia into bloody warfare. Romania, Bulgaria and Albania struggled to find stability as they reeled from the collapse of the communist social system and even Greece became embroiled in the Yugoslav tragedy. This new book examines the politics and international relations of the Balkans during a decade of mounting external involvement in its affairs.

The purpose of this study is fourfold: to show why and how Communism is emerging in China; to explain the special characteristics of the Chinese Communists and their tactics; to indicate the effect of Communism on the people of China; and to attempt an analysis of the attitude the Chinese Communists manifest toward the United States and Russia. Special emphasis will be laid upon the conflict between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) led by Chiang K'aishek and the Communists led by Mao Tze-Tung.

This paper is a study of the history of the Chinese Communists, what they stand for, how they attained power in China, their connection to Russia, and the dangers of their success.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar como, no contexto da Guerra Fria, o comunismo de extração marxista-leninista foi sendo identificado às formas políticas totalitárias por representações circulantes em nível internacional e nacional e como a questão democrática ganhou proeminência no interior do movimento comunista no Brasil, com destaque para o Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB). Na década de 1960, movimentos de contra cultura e lutas sociais das esquerdas se contrapuseram ao golpe civil-militar acirrando ainda mais os conflitos entre as classes no Brasil. Tendo como fontes primárias documentos produzidos pelo Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (DOPS), acrescidos de processos-crime, jornais do período e de entrevistas realizadas, relativas à atuação dos comunistas e dos movimentos cultural e estudantil que tomou corpo na região de Londrina, Paraná, procedemos à análise das representações sobre o comunismo e o PCB ali consignadas, considerando os sujeitos e as condições na quais foram produzidas. Verificamos então como o partido foi paulatinamente assumindo a questão democrática pelas experiências históricas e crises que se instauraram em seu interior, situação explicitada na Declaração de Março de 1958. Finalmente, a experiência de integrantes do Comitê Central do Partido no exílio, em meados da década de 1970, introduziu a polêmica no interior do PCB, o qual incorporou as discussões do marxista Antonio Gramsci levadas a cabo principalmente pelos partidos comunistas italiano, francês e espanhol, de um lado, na vertente denominada eurocomunismo e, de outro, nas frações do partido que buscavam interpelar a questão da democracia valendo-se do pensamento gramsciano mas, preservando contudo, a tradição marxista-leninista. As duas vertentes nascidas do debate tinham como principais divergências as interpretações da relação entre democracia e socialismo. O ponto de convergência foi a necessidade de superação da regulação social pelo mercado como sendo um elemento incompatível com a ampliação e aprofundamento da democracia. / The present study aimed at analyzing how, in a Cold War context, communism of a Marxist-Leninist extraction was gradually identified to the political-totalitarian forms by ongoing representations at national and international levels, and how the democratic issue gained prominence within the Communist Party in Brazil, with focus at the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista do Brasil PCB). During the 1960s, counterculture and social conflicts of the leftist entities opposed the civil-military putsch, enflaming even more the conflict of classes in Brazil. Having its primary sources from documents produced by Social and Political Order Department (Departamento de Ordem Política e Social - DOPS), increased with Criminal Proceedings, newspapers and interviews produced in such period, related to the activity of the communists and the arising students and cultural movements that took place at the region of the city of Londrina, State of Parana, Brazil, one proceeded to the analysis of the communist and PCB representations there established, considering the agents and the conditions in which they were produced. One has then verified how the party was gradually taking up the democratic issue by the historical experiences and crisis that arose within its interior, such situation which was made explicit by the Declaration of March 1958. Finally the experience of the members to the Partys Central Committee in exile, around the mid 1970s, introduced the polemics in the interior of PCB, which assumed the discussions of Marxist Antonio Gramsci, performed mainly by, on one side, the Italian, French and Spanish communist parties, in its side named Eurocommunism; and, on the other side, in the fractions of the party which attempted to apostrophize the democratic issue, betaking the Gramscian thought, yet preserving the Marxist-Leninist tradition Both sides originated from the debate diverged mainly about the relation between democracy and socialism. The converging point was the necessity to overcome the social regulation by the market as being an element incompatible with the broadening and deepening of democracy.

論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學硏究院政治及公共行政學部,1994. / 參考文獻: leaves 137-152 / 何榮漢. / 圖表目錄 --- p.i / 主要官方文件縮寫表 --- p.ii / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 --- p.1-5 / Chapter 第二章 --- 從國家與宗教的關係看中國共產黨的宗教政策 --- p.6-25 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究中共宗教政策的起點 --- p.6-11 / Chapter 第二節 --- 中國共產黨與基督教的初步接觸 --- p.12-14 / Chapter 第三節 --- 中共建國至文革前的宗教政策 --- p.15-17 / Chapter 第四節 --- 文革期間的宗教政策 --- p.18-19 / Chapter 第五節 --- 文革後的宗教政策 --- p.20-25 / Chapter 第三章 --- 合法性危機下的宗教政策 --- p.26-58 / Chapter 第一節 --- 八十年代的宗教政策：合法性的危機與回應 --- p.26-30 / Chapter 第二節 --- 八十年代宗教政策的基礎：「十九號文件」 --- p.31-46 / Chapter 第三節 --- 九十年代的宗教政策：從「宗教法」到「六號文件」 --- p.47-58 / Chapter 第四章 --- 非官方意見中的基督教 --- p.59-86 / Chapter 第一節 --- 引言 --- p.59-61 / Chapter 第二節 --- 基督教作為一種道德取向的選擇 --- p.62-70 / Chapter 第三節 --- 有關基督教與科學的關係 --- p.71-79 / Chapter 第四節 --- 有關基督教對政治的影響 --- p.80-86 / Chapter 第五章 --- 基督教--股社會力量的興起 --- p.87-102 / Chapter 第一節 --- 關於國家與社會關係的討論 --- p.87-91 / Chapter 第二節 --- 一股社會力量的興起 --- p.92-96 / Chapter 第三節 --- 基督教在官方政策下的政治取向 --- p.97-102 / Chapter 第六章 --- 结論 --- p.103-107 / 註釋 / 第一章 --- p.108 / 第二章 --- p.109-112 / 第三章 --- p.113-122 / 第四章 --- p.123-128 / 第五章 --- p.129-134 / 第六章 --- p.135-136 / 書目 / 中、英文單行本及文集 --- p.137-142 / 英文期刊論文 --- p.143-144 / 中文期刊論文及報章 --- p.145-152

by Nison Mok Ka Ho. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- The Theory of Legitimation Crisis --- p.11 / Chapter 3 --- On Economic Crisis --- p.36 / Chapter 4 --- On Institutional Crisis --- p.69 / Chapter 5 --- On Identity Crisis --- p.95 / Chapter 6 --- On Cultural Crisis --- p.124 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.153 / Bibliography

Who supports social policy in the developing world? Most of what we know about micro-level preferences for social policy comes from well-developed, wealthy countries of the OECD, where governments can credibly commit to policy enforcement and implementation. This dissertation explores preferences for social policy in post-communist countries, where weak constraints on the state challenge the welfare state. In doing so, it provides novel insights both into social policy debates in these countries and the coalitions which support (or oppose) social policy. I argue that support for social policy depends on how institutions shape the expectations of actors about the costs they pay into social policy programs versus future benefits. I draw on existing theories of political economy to propose four mechanisms -- misappropriation, contract enforcement, free-riding, and macro-economic risk -- that alter the distribution of winners and losers from social policy. Misappropriation stems from officials' ability to divert funding away from intended uses. While for most this imposes dead-weight costs on social policy, where institutions are poor. the politically well-connected can benefit from diverted funds to decrease social policy costs. The contract enforcement mechanism emerges due to the inability of weakly constrained states to enforce contracts. Predictions are similar to misappropriation, but actors also cannot trust other private actors with control of social policy. Free-riding emerges when bureaucrats are unwilling to expend effort to ensure tax compliance. Again, this imposes dead-weight costs on most, but garners support from tax evaders, who can free-ride. Finally, the macro-economic risk mechanism suggests that macro-economic volatility is heightened in settings with weak institutions, which increases both individual risk and support for social policy. The empirical portion of the dissertation tests the observable implications of each of these mechanisms. Chapter 2 provides a first-cut, cross-national test of part of the argument using micro-level data from a cross-national survey of 28 post-communist countries. I draw on work on informality in the post-communist world to identify individual characteristics associated with tax evasion to test the free-rider mechanism. Consistent with it, I show that those associated with evasion support social policy more where institutions are weaker. Chapter 3 posits that if the mechanisms I propose matter, actors will appeal to the logic of my theory during concrete reform debates. I test this using evidence from the 2001 pension reforms in Russia. I combine analysis of the legislative debates surrounding reform with in-depth content analysis of the Russian media, which draws on an original dataset of all mentions of reform in 352 Russian newspapers, journals, and trade magazines. I show that all four mechanisms were indeed major concerns. Chapter 4 tests the theory at the firm level, using a survey of 666 Russian firms to look at preferences where institutional quality is weak. I test whether firms that I predict support the welfare state in such settings -- those with political connections and a comparative advantage in hiding from the authorities -- actually do so. In addition to providing some support for the misappropriation and free-riding mechanisms, this chapter is a contribution in its own right: it is among the first to use surveys to study firms' preferences for social policy. Finally, chapter 5 uses a survey experiment conducted on 1600 respondents to attempt to understand the ceteris paribus effect of institutions on the average individual. Using a simple framing experiment, I provide three different treatment groups with information about bribery, tax evasion, and the extent to which private pension funds commit fraud to test the misappropriation, free-riding, and contract enforcement mechanisms, respectively. The chapter offers mixed evidence. The dissertation makes contributions to both the study of the welfare state and the political economy of institutions and investment. First, the dissertation explores preferences for social policy in the developing world and introduces institutional quality concerns to this literature. My work particularly focuses attention on the ways certain groups can abuse social policy to pass costs onto others, adding nuance to existing understandings of who benefits from social policy. Second, it advances our understanding of how institutional quality shapes economic decision making and provides evidence as to how different pathologies of poor institutions shape economic decisions.

The fall of Communism in 1989 presented a unique opportunity for social psychology to contribute to the understanding of these historic events. Through the framework of the theory of social representations, lay meanings and understanding of terms such as ‘democracy’, ‘the individual’ and ‘the community’ were examined in Slovakia and in Scotland. Lay representations of complex concepts are likely to be formed, maintained and changed by both implicit and explicit processes. Some features of representations may be deep-seated and transmitted across generations and across cultures, relatively resistant to change. Others are shaped by already existing thinking schemata and reflect more current social practices. Questions asked where, what were the effects of 40 years of Soviet totalitarianism on the meaning of these terms in Slovakia compared to Scotland, a stable democracy. What aspects of meaning are shared, what aspects vary and reflect the specific political, economic and social histories of these two nations. Data were collected over various phases from 1992 to 1996. The primary methods used were word associations and the rating of single terms through the use of various rating scales. Some interview data were also used. Results indicate that aspects of the meaning of democracy was relatively stable and shared between Slovaks and Scots. For both samples, democracy was conceived primarily in relation to freedom and to value terms such as rights, justice and equality. Compared to the Scottish sample, the meaning of democracy in the Slovaks revealed a highly emotive aspect which reflected the inter-relationship between the current political and social climate with that of their more recent past. For meanings attached to the terms ‘the individual’ and ‘the community’, results varied depending on the method. Conceived of as separate terms, the overall content of meaning of both ‘the individual’ and ‘the community’ were not largely shared by the Slovaks and Scots, lending some support to the dominant view that Soviet totalitarianism destroyed or distorted naturally occurring communities. Taking a more holistic approach and viewing the individual/community as a relational whole, shared aspects of meaning could be identified which were more deep-seated and enduring over histories and cultures, other aspects, in Slovaks, reflected more their recent past. These results are discussed in terms of a structural approach to social representations, which emphasis both stability and change in how meaning is formed, maintained and changed, as well as the multi-layered nature of meaning.