Your faculty and students have been producing scholarly work for many years. Is it locked away in print format, getting very little use? Are you thinking about creating an Institutional Repository (IR) at your college or university to digitize these valuable resources and make them more widely accessible? If so, Butler University and bepress invite you to learn from game-winning IR specialists. This event will feature successful strategies for content acquisition and growth, distributing scholarship globally, and using metrics to take stock of your progress. Dave Stout (bepress Sales Director) will kick off the event with a brief introduction to IRs at 9:25 a.m.

The collapse of the United States as the global hegemon constitutes a “systemic revolution” that will transform both the U.S. and the rest of the globe. Such a revolution is different from “normal” political revolutions, which entail an overthrow of the government. A systemic revolution ushers in even broader and more enduring changes in economy, society and culture, and it also transcends national boundaries, affecting other countries and the global system itself. It is a global paradigm shift, and we are right smack in the middle of it.

With the declaration of martial law in December 1981 and the formal banning of Solidarity in October 1982, the Polish regime created for itself a dilemma: how to provide a channel for participation by the workers without reactivating Solidarity and without allowing that participation to assume political dimensions. The Jaruzelski leadership professed a desire to achieve reconciliation and understanding in the aftermath of the heady days of Solidarity and the depressing denouement of martial law. One of the principal means to do this was through the creation of new institutions, allegedly independent, which would absorb some of the creative and participatory energy of Solidarity, without allowing a return to what the regime claimed had been political activities by the union.

This paper examines the extent to which Solidarity acted as a link between the population and the regime and as a representative of the interests of the workers. It looks first at the reasons for the emergence of Solidarity, and Solidarity's subsequent embodiment of the society's desire for a political and economic order more in line with the ideals of socialism, and more genuinely representative of the workers' interests. It concludes by assessing the charges against Solidarity made by the martial law authorities, the extent of current support for the union and the regime, and the possibilities for a resolution of the stalemate.

An opinion piece on tax cuts.

As the People's Republic of China shifts toward a more market-oriented economic system, it has also begun exploring another Western institution: scientific public opinion polling. As Yang Guansan, one of China's leading pollsters, said recently in the Beijing Review: "Only five or six years ago, the public opinion poll was considered to be a 'bourgeois' or 'capitalist' method of social survey ... Now the taboo has been swept away in the strong tide of reform, which is challenging all of China's traditions, stereotypes and prejudices."

Over the last three years, the Polish United Workers' Party has suffered a major crisis, the most substantial crisis of any Communist party in any Communist party state. The disintegration of the party was at least partly responsible for both the development of Solidarity in the summer of 1980 and the imposition of martial law in December 1981. The lack of trust in the party and its authoritarian and unrepresentative character led the workers to demand an institution more responsive to their own needs. But the growth of Solidarity during 1981 and the continuing disintegration and fragmentation of the party led the military to preempt the leading role of the party in 1982.

In the aftermath of the anti-communist revolutions of 1989-1991, the new governments in eastern Europe faced the herculean task of attempting simultaneously to build market economies and democratic political institutions. Though capitalism and democracy are often considered to be natural allies, in the cases of these new states they sometimes pull against each other.

Between 1991 and 1996 Russia underwent a precipitous economic and social decline with decreases in production, gross national product, and wages, and increases in inequality, crime, and corruption. Most people experienced a decline in their standard of living, and many fondly recalled the security and stability of the communist era.

Focuses on the leadership of Polish Prime Minister General Wojciech Jaruzelski during the 1980s. Claims made by the leader's camp of the degree of stability and normalization achieved by the country in 1981; Issues of democracy, political participation and justice raised by the Solidarity party.

Examines Mikhail Gorbachev's perspective of social justice that points to the unfairness of slothful workers' receiving the same pay as productive fellow workers. Focus on egalitarian version of social justice; Large number of people at bottom of social ladder; Justice in communist ideology; Aspects of the debate; Public opinion and social justice; Political justice or market justice?

Romania has proved to be an interesting case study of the limits of autonomy within the Soviet bloc. Romania's foreign policy has become increasingly independent of Soviet dictates over the last fifteen years, while domestic controls have remained as rigid as any in Eastern Europe.

Parliaments in communist party states are usually treated in Western literature as "rubber stamp" institutions that simply approve policies made elsewhere. As such, these bodies do not perform functions of interest articulation, representation, or policy-making that are characteristic of many Western legislatures.

Strikes in Poland during April and May 1988 demonstrate once again the stalemate confronting regime and populace. Although Jaruzelski cannot mobilize support for economic reforms, Solidarity also lacks the power to force the regime toward the political reforms it deems necessary for Poland's salvation.

The Polish United Workers' Party, like the CPSU, has faced a dilemma in its attempts to control its growth. 1 The problem is in maintaining its leading, elite role while remaining fairly representative of the population, or at least of the working class. The difficulty in maintaining this balance has been compounded by the Party's changing image of itself and its role.

If superpower push comes to shove, the Circle City ranks high on the first-strike list. Reprinted in Congressional Record, April 29, 1982.

Public opinion research has changed dramatically in the last ten years in Poland, in terms of its methodology, scope, and role in political change. During the "first" Solidarity era (1980–81), the genie of public opinion was let out of the bottle, and even martial law could not entirely put it back. Public opinion polling in the 1980s became more sophisticated and more common, and began to tackle increasingly sensitive political issues. Public opinion came to play a role in the political process, and to give the Polish population a sense of its own purpose and values. It also revealed the depth of antipathy to the communist regime and leadership and, in doing so, further eroded the already fragile legitimacy of the regime. When, in the late 1980s, the regime realized it could not succeed at winning back the allegiance, or at least acquiescence, of the Polish population, it agreed to negotiate with the opposition. The result was the emergence of the first noncommunist regime in Eastern Europe.

No abstract available.

Note: Link is to the catalog entry in WorldCat's catalog. Please see your local librarian for assistance in borrowing this item via interlibrary loan.

No abstract available.

Note: Link is to the catalog entry in WorldCat's catalog. Please see your local librarian for assistance in borrowing this item via interlibrary loan.

Political apathy is the lack of psychological involvement in public affairs, emotional detachment from civic obligation, and abstention from political activity. But it is not any of these things alone, and these may be regarded as necessary, but not sufficient, components of political apathy. Political apathy is evidenced in mass, collective behavior but has its origins at the level of the individual psyche. In the aggregate, political apathy is revealed by attitudes and an absence of expected activity. When people cease to care about political life, withdraw from obligations to civil society, and perform entirely nominal or rote acts-or none at all-in political institutions or organizations, apathy is indicated.