Political Legitimation in Communist States

Further discussion, at a high level of theory and observed practice, of how the ruling elites in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe try to achieve legitimacy and the right combination of force, fear and popular acceptance. The book attests to the quality of research in political science and sociology now being devoted to the nature of politics in communist societies. Most of the contributors developed their skills in postwar Eastern Europe (above all, in Hungary), and their emigration has been a positive gain for Western scholarship and for knowledge of these societies.