Post-communist Studies And Political Science: Methodology And Empirical Theory In Sovietology

Beset by the USSR's closed nature and the paucity of reliable data, scholars have used unique methods to study a political system they claimed was completely different from any other on earth. However, in the first extended reassessment of Sovietology in over two decades, Frederic Fleron and Erik Hoffmann argue that the isolation of the field from the social sciences has diminished analysts' ability to explain the dramatic changes in their area of study. The editors' collection of key essays elucidates Sovietology's theories and methodologies and underscores the need to adapt them to the rapidly shifting conditions in the USSR during the 1980s and in its successor countries during the 1990s.This important anthology is the only book to systematically review the state of Sovietology and to provide practical suggestions for new methodological approaches and conceptual orientations for all analysts of postcommunism. The book's stimulating diversity of views will make it required reading for political scientists, area specialists, policy advisers, and students who hope to understand the Communist past and the transition to a post-Communist future.