Popular Opinion under Communist Regimes

Book chapter

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. (2014). Popular Opinion under Communist Regimes. In Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism pp. 1 - 18 Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.013.010
AuthorsFitzpatrick, Sheila
Abstract

The totalitarian nature of communist states is generally understood to exclude the existence of a public sphere sufficiently independent of the state to allow the expression of a range of opinions. However, popular opinion, if not a public sphere, did exist and it was monitored extensively by these states, since leaders needed to know about popular responses to their policies and campaigns. This essay explores the limits on the expression of popular opinion in the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe, and the ways in which those limits shifted—and were challenged—over time. If it may be argued that the transformation of popular opinion into a ‘public sphere’ followed the collapse of communism in Poland, and possibly Hungary, ‘civil society’ was relatively insignificant in the collapse elsewhere (or indeed its persistence in the case of China).

Keywordspublic sphere; popular opinion; civil society; Soviet Union; China; Poland; Hungary; collapse of communism
Page range1 - 18
Year2014
Book titleOxford Handbook of the History of Communism
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN9780199602056
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.013.010
Research GroupInstitute for Humanities and Social Sciences
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Controlled
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