As a new decade begins the popular demand for change has meant that the social and political fabric of the the Eastern Bloc countries has been irrevocably altered. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the key political, economic and social areas of East German society, such as the military and the church, areas which will intrinsically involved with the movement for change.

    1. The SED faces the challenges of Ostpolitik and Glasnost David Childs 2. The SED after two congresses: Party policy in the Gorbachev era Henry Krisch, University of Connecticut 3. Leadership structures and leadership politics in Hungary and the GDR Thomas A. Baylis 4. Social Courts in the GDR and the Comrades Courts in the Soviet Union: A comparison Nancy Travis Wolfe, University of South Carolina 5. Socialist transformation and gender inequality: Women in the German Democratic Republic and Hungary Marilyn Reuschemeyer 6. Is the GDR the future of Hungary and the Baltics? Dissent and the Lutheran Church in Eastern Europe Robert F. Goeckel, State University of New York at Geneseo 7. A comparison of consumer market disequilibria in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the GDR Irwin L. Collier and Manouchehr Mokhtari, University of Houston 8. Enterprise and association in Soviet planning: Comparisons with the East German experience Phillip J. Bryson, University of Arizona 9. The foreign economic policies of the GDR and the USSR: The end of autarky? Ronald A. Francisco, University of Kansas 10. The politics of East-South relations: The GDR and Southern Africa Brigitte H. Schulz, Seattle University

    Biography

    Thomas A. Baylis, Dr David Childs, Erwin L. Collier, Marilyn Rueschemeyer

    `The overall quality of the book's ten chapters is high and the result is a study which is both scholarly and readable. This volume should therefore prove useful to both students and teachers of East European and comparative communist politics.' - Political Studies