Course description: For the small countries of Eastern Europe, politics has long taken place in the shadow of larger actors, and continues to be decisively influenced by events beyond national borders. Meanwhile, the dramatic shifts in international affairs in this century have had their origins in domestic unheavals, often in Russia. This course will survey the politics and international relations of the region during the Cold War, the rise and fall of the Soviet satellite system, the politics of simultaneous political and economic transitions from Communism, and post-Communist international relations.

Requirements: This course is a seminar with a heavy reading load, and students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Assignments are as follows:

• Six short (2- page) papers. Students with last names beginning with A-M write papers on odd-numbered weeks, and those with last names beginning with N-Z on even-numbered weeks. There are no papers assigned for weeks 1, 14, or 15. Papers are due by 10:00 am Monday.
• One ten-page research paper, due April 20, demonstrating original research, which may involve searching the internet for current information or using historical documents. Papers should clearly specify a hypothesis and test it using empirical data: case studies, statistics, or both. Submit in paper and by email (for distribution).
• An oral presentation, discussion and defense of the findings of the research paper on April 27. All of the papers will be distributed to all students, and all should come prepared to discuss them. Note: no extensions can be granted on the papers because of the presentation and the Professor's departure for Bulgaria immediately afterwards.
• There are no exams for this course.

Grading will be 30% for discussion, 5% for each short paper, 30% for the research paper, and 10% for the presentation of the research paper.

1. register for PSC 272 W or RST 272 W;
2. write a substantial (20+ page) research paper instead of the ten-page paper.

Internet Discussion: In addition to class meetings, this course includes an e-mail discussion forum. Registered students are automatically enrolled, and others should speak to the professor. Any message sent to "psc271@uhura.cc.rochester.edu" will automatically be distributed to everyone in the course. If you reply to a message from psc271, the reply will also go to everyone. Students are welcome to use this forum to ask questions, make comments, share information, and generally continue class discussion outside of class. Always check your e-mail before class, since the professor may use this forum to send discussion questions, announcements, and short electronic readings.

Short Paper Topics: Write a critical review, as a social scientist, of the readings assigned for the week. Make a clear argument and defend it with appropriate citations and examples. Above all, be a tough critic. A good social scientist can always find something to criticize. Do NOT summarize the authors' positions, but instead concentrate on your own argument. Please submit all papers in paper form and by e-mail, since some will be distributed electronically.

RFE/RL Reports: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sends daily reports by e-mail on current political, economic, and business events in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Although this news is sent in digest form, this is one of the richest sources available in English on current events in the region. Subscription is free of charge, and students in the course are expected to subscribe.

JRL Reports: Johnson's Russia List is the leading free source of news about Russia on the internet. It offers two levels of service: List one (EEUROPE-NEWS), with two or three more selective lists of messages per day, and List Two (EEUROPE-CHANGES), with four or five more comprehensive ones. To subscribe send a message addressed to: listmanager@hookup.net, with the following in the first line of the body of the message: subscribe eeurope-news [or subscribe eeurope-changes].

• Open Media Research Institute (for an archive of older RFE/RL reports): http://www.omri.cz/OMRI.html or, http://www.omri.cz/ http://www.cipe.org/ert.html
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty http://www.rferl.org/index.html
• ICPSR (for a wide range of data sets--PSC has an account, so you can get them at no charge): http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
• Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics:http://cep.lse.ac.uk/
• Russia On-Line: http://www.online.ru/
• World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/
• IMF: http://www.imf.org/external/
• St. Petersburg Times: http://www.spb.su/times/203-204/index.html Books Recommended for Purchase (in order of use):
  
  • John Lewis Gaddis. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1997).
  • Randall W. Stone. Satellites and Commissars: Strategy and Conflict in the Politics of Soviet-Bloc Trade. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
  • Anders Aslund. How Russia Became a Market Economy. (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1995).
  • Stephen White, Richard Rose, Ian McAllister. How Russia Votes. (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1997).
  • Celeste A. Wallander, ed. The Sources of Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold War. (Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1996).

  Tues., Jan. 19: Course Overview, or, Nine Theories in Search of a Scientific Method
  
  

  Tues., Jan. 26: Puzzles of the Cold War

  George F. Kennan, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," in American Diplomacy, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951).

  John Lewis Gaddis. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), Chpts. 1-5
  
  

  Tues., Feb. 2: Puzzles of the Cold War, II

  Gaddis, chpts. 6-10.
  
  

  Tues., Feb. 9: The Rise of Detente

  Raymond L. Garthoff, Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan,(Washington: Brookings, 1985), Chpts. 2, 3, 11.

  Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, Chpts. 7, 12 (pp. 228-301, 545-613.)

  Georgi Arbatov, The System: An Insider's Life in Soviet Politics, Chpt. 8.
  
  

  Tues., Feb. 16: No class
  
  

  Tues., Feb. 23: The Fall of Detente

  Garthoff, Chpts. 26, 27, 29 (pp. 887-982, 1068-1089).

  Arbatov, The System, Chpt. 9.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977-1981, (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983), Chpt. 12.
  
  

  Tues., Mar. 2: Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War

  Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 135-51.

  Raymond L. Garthoff, The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War, (Washington: Brookings, 1994), Chpts. 5, 6.

  Jeffrey T. Checkel, Ideas and International Political Change, (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1997), Chpt. 5.

  Celeste A. Wallander and Jane E. Prokop, "Soviet Security Strategies toward Europe," in Robert O. Keohane, Joseph S. Nye, and Stanley Hoffmann, ed., After the Cold War: International Institutions and State Strategies in Europe, 1989-1991, (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1993).

  Anders Aslund, How Russia Became a Market Economy, (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1995), Chpt. 2.
  
  

  Tues., Mar. 9: Central Planning and the Soviet Satellite System

  Randall W. Stone. Satellites and Commissars: Strategy and Conflict in the Politics of Soviet-Bloc Trade. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
  
  

  Tues., Mar 16: The Strategy of Simultaneous Political and Economic Transitions

  Aslund, Chpts. 1, 3, 5, 6.

  Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991), Chpt. 4.

  Joel Hellman, "Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Post-Communist Transitions," World Politics 50, No. 2 (January, 1998).

  Daniel S. Treisman, "Fighting Inflation in a Transitional Regime: Russia's Anomalous Stabilization," World Politics 50 (2) (January 1998): 235-65.
  
  *Reminder: Come talk to me about your paper, if you haven't yet

  Tues., Mar. 23: Privatization

  Aslund, Chpts. 7-8.

  David L. Weimer, ed., The Political Economy of Property Rights: Institutional Change and Credibility in the Reform of Centrally Planned Economies. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997, Chpts. 2, 4, 8 (chapters by Diermeier et al.; Frye; Allio).

  Michael McFaul, "State Power, Institutional Change, and the Politics of Privatization in Russia," World Politics 47 (January 1995): 210-43.

  Simon Clarke, et al., "The Privatization of Industrial Enterprises in Russia: Four Case-Studies." Europe-Asia Studies 46, No. 2 (1994): 179-214.

  Ellen Comisso, "Legacies of the Past or New Institutions? The Struggle over Restitution in Hungary," Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (July 1995): 200-238.
  
  

  Tues., Mar. 30: The Struggle for the State

  Daniel S. Treisman, "Russia's 'Ethnic Revival': The Separatist Activism of Regional Leaders in a Postcommunist Order." World Politics. 49, No.2 (January 1997).

  Thomas A. Baylis, "Presidents versus Prime Ministers: Shaping Executive Authority in Eastern Europe." World Politics. Vol. 48, No. 3 (April 1996).

  Gerald M. Easter, "Preference for Presidentialism: Postcommunist Regime Change in Russia and the NIS." World Politics. Vol. 49, No.2 (January 1997).

  Boris N. Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia, (New York: Random House, 1994), Chpt. 9, "A Hard Autumn."

  Thomas F. Remington, Politics in Russia, (New York: Longman, 1999), pp. 40-66.
  
  

  Tues., Apr. 6: Consolidating Democracy: The Case of Poland

  Adam Przeworski, "Public Support for Economic Reforms in Poland." Comparative Political Studies 29, No. 5 (October 1996): 520-43.

  Denise V. Powers and James H. Cox, "Echoes from the Past: The Relationship between Satisfaction with Economic Reforms and Voting Behavior in Poland," American Political Science Review 91 (3) (September 1997): 617-33.

  Hubert Tworzecki, Parties and Politics in Post-1989 Poland, (Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1996), Chpt. 2, pp. 43-75.

  George Blazyca and Ryszard Rapacki, "Continuity and Change in Polish Economic Policy: The Impact of the 1993 Election," Europe-Asia Studies 48, No. 1 (1996): 85-100
  
  

  Tues., Apr. 13: Elections and Parties in Russia

  Stephen White, Richard Rose, and Ian McAllister, How Russia Votes, (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1997).
  
  

  Tues., Apr. 20: Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold Wara

  Aslund, chpt. 4.

  Celeste A. Wallander, ed., The Sources of Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold War, (Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1996).
  
  ***Ten-page research papers due; first drafts of 20-page research papers due. Please submit in paper and also send to Prof. Stone by e-mail for electronic distribution***

  Tues., Apr. 27: Presentation of student papers