166-030 Transitions in Central & Eastern Europe

Formerly available as 166-235/335. Students who have completed 166-235 or 166-335 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first-year politics or first-year European studies

This subject explores the reasons for the collapse of communist power and the emergence of post-communism in what used to be Eastern Europe and the USSR. Issues studied include democratisation, marketisation and privatisation, gender, nationalism and ethnic problems, and the environment. On completion of this subject students should be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of the numerous explanations of the 1989-91 Eastern European Revolutions and the 1991 collapse of the USSR; a brief analysis of the political, social and economic systems of the eight East European states and the USSR up to 1989; and an up-to-date analysis of the various problems and achievements of transitional and post-communist states in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.