Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism Regime Survival in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many scholars have sought to explain the collapse of communism. Yet, more than two decades on, communist regimes continue to rule in a diverse set of countries including China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. In a unique study of fourteen countries, Steven Saxonberg explores the reasons for the survival of some communist regimes while others fell. He also shows why the process of collapse differed among communist-led regimes in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Based on the analysis of the different processes of collapse that has already taken place, and taking into account the special characteristics of the remaining communist regimes, Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism discusses the future prospects for the survival of the regimes in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam.

1. Introduction; 2. Communist regime types; 3. Nationalism and patrimonial communism; 4. Ideology and opposition to communism; 5. Revolutionary potential and revolutionary outcomes; 6. Transitions without revolutions; 7. Non-transitions among maturing countries; 8. Non-transition and patrimonial communism; 9. What next?

Steven Saxonberg is Professor of Sociology at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. He has published over 50 articles in journals and books on the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the post-communist developments in this area. His first book The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland (2001) was awarded second place in the UNESCO Stein Rokkan competition for best book in comparative social science.