From Central Planning to Markets: 20 Years of Post-Socialist Transformation in an Eastern German County

Autor/in	Singelmann, Joachim
Titel	From Central Planning to Markets: 20 Years of Post-Socialist Transformation in an Eastern German County
Quelle	In: Rural Sociology, 76 (2011) 1, S.1-20 (20 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0036-0112
DOI	10.1111/j.1549-0831.2011.00048.x
Schlagwörter	Social Systems; Democracy; Group Unity; Foreign Countries; Counties; German; Social Change; Rural Areas; Agriculture; Privatization; Germany + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Social system; Soziales System; Demokratie; Gruppenidentität; Ausland; Deutscher; Sozialer Wandel; Rural area; Ländlicher Raum; Landwirtschaft; Privatisation; Privatisierung; Deutschland
Abstract	The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of two worlds that could not view each other. Thus, the fall of the Berlin Wall--and the fall of Communist regimes all over Eastern Europe, ultimately including the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself--removed the barrier to visibility. These events were revolutions that resulted in the end of Communism as a political system. This article discusses the consequences of this revolution in Germany, where, as a unique feature, it resulted in the subsequent unification of the two Germanys--the German Democratic Republic (or GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (or FRG). Unification had far more consequences for eastern Germany than for the west. The main reason for this difference is the fact that for the east, unification involved a total system change from socialism to capitalism. Thus, the author examines how the transformation from socialism to capitalism played out in one nonmetropolitan county in eastern Germany. He addresses four research questions: (1) Is modernization theory an appropriate approach to analyze the transformation process?; (2) How soon and to what extent did values in support of pluralistic democracy emerge?; (3) How was agriculture privatized and restructured?; and (4) Is there a legacy of the GDR? Before turning to the four research questions, the author briefly describes the locale of his empirical work. (Contains 5 figures, 2 tables and 3 footnotes.) (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10