Green Barons, Force-Of-Circumstance Entrepreneurs, Impotent Mayors

Rural Change in the Early Years of Post-Socialist Capitalist Democracy

von Nigel Swain

412 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

An exemplary study in comparative contemporary history, this monograph looks at rural change in six countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. In the 1990s most of these nations experienced a fourth radical restructuring of agricultural relations in the twentieth century, and all went through the dramatic transition from communism to capitalism. The author analyzes attempts to activate democracy on a local level and recreate farming structures and non-agricultural businesses based on private ownership and private enterprise. He describes the emergence of a new business class that seeks to dominate local government structures; the recuperation of former communist farming entities by former managers; and the transformation of peasants into rural citizens, who nevertheless remain the underdogs. Swain exposes common features as well as specific divergences between the six countries; he portrays the winners, losers and engineers of transformations. He situates his themes in a wider context that will appeal to a broad range of social scientists and historians.

• Themen: Geschichte und Archäologie Geschichte Geschichte allgemein und Weltgeschichte
• ISBN: 9786155225703
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 15.02.2014
• Größe: 231 x 163 mm
• Verlag: Amsterdam University Press