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2. The COVID-19 Curtain: Can Past Communist Regimes Explain the Vaccination Divide in Europe
- Author:
- Inés Berniell, Yarine Fawaz, Anne Laferrere, Pedro Mira, and Elizaveta Pronkina
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS)
- Abstract:
- As of November 2021, all former Communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe exhibit lower vaccination rates than Western European countries. Can institutional inheritance explain, at least in part, this heterogeneity in vaccination decisions across Europe? To study this question we exploit novel data from the second wave of the SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe) Covid-19 Survey fielded in Summer 2021 that covers 27 European countries and Israel. First, we document lower Covid-19 vaccine take-up amongst individuals above 55 years old who were born under Communism in Europe. Next, we turn to reunified Germany to get closer to a causal effect of exposure to Iron curtain regimes. We find that exposure to the Communist regime in East Germany decreases one’s probability to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by 8 percentage points, increases that of not wanting the vaccine by 4 percentage points. Both effects are quite large and statistically significant, and they hold when controlling for individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics. We identify low social capital -measured as voluntary work, political engagement, trust in people- as a plausible channel through which past Communist regimes would still affect individuals’ preferences for Covid-19 vaccination.
- Topic:
- Communism, Public Health, Vaccine, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Post-Soviet Europe
3. Albania: The Longest Post Communist Transition Story
- Author:
- Alba Cela and Ledion Krisafi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)
- Abstract:
- By the time Albania, alongside the Republic of North Macedonia, received the green light to proceed with accession negotiations, the enthusiasm for the decision was dampened by the growing coronavirus crisis. Albania had spent all its celebration reserves beforehand having expected a positive decision repeatedly in 2018 and then 2019. Having put in place an ambitious, comprehensive and even disruptive justice reform the country believed to have deserved the integration milestone earlier and blamed delays on the skepticism of certain member states. However, this does not tell the full story. Albania's track record has been blemished by a tagin conflict between political parties deeply rooted in old enmities of transition.
- Topic:
- Communism, State Building, Political Parties, and Transition
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Balkans, Albania, and North Macedonia
4. One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India
- Author:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Abstract:
- Dossier no. 32 provides a brief introduction to the history of the communist movement in India, which turns one hundred years old on 17 October 2020. Founded by a handful of Indian freedom fighters who were inspired by the October Revolution, the Indian communist movement has a history of glorious struggles and significant achievements. The communists in India have tirelessly worked to advance the rights of the working people, and to demonstrate the possibility of a future without the exploitation of human beings by human beings.
- Topic:
- Communism, Social Movement, Radicalization, and Activim
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
5. People’s Polyclinics: The Initiative of the Telugu Communist Movement.
- Author:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Publication Date:
- 02-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Abstract:
- The Indian Communist movement has experimented with various forms of people’s polyclinics, which provide free or reduced-cost health care to anyone. The epicentre of this initiative has been in the Telugu-speaking region of India, where the Nellore People’s Polyclinic alone treats 1,000 patients per day at rates 40% lower than corporate hospitals and has trained over five hundred doctors who now provide health care across the region. Our Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Dossier no. 25 focuses on the history of the polyclinics in this region.
- Topic:
- Communism, Health, Community, and Medicine
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
6. Dictators and Leadership: Lessons from Stalin and Mao
- Author:
- Graeme Gill
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The accepted wisdom about dictators is that they rule their political systems in an essentially arbitrary and willful manner. Their leadership colleagues are said to live in constant fear of the dictator, always vulnerable to his will and always looking to defend themselves against him. The leadership is shown as a Hobbesian “war of all against all” as the leader rules with no real restraint. This paper challenges that view. It will explain why such a view of leadership politics in authoritarian systems is inadequate, and will illustrate this by looking at two of the most egregious dictators of the twentieth century, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.
- Topic:
- Communism, Democratization, Politics, Governance, Institutions, and Political Parties
- Political Geography:
- Russia, China, Eurasia, and Asia
7. The Art of the Revolution will be Internationalist
- Author:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Publication Date:
- 04-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Abstract:
- This dossier traces the history of graphic production in post-Revolutionary Cuba, particularly through OSPAAAL. Cuba, once a darling of U.S. imperialism, would carve its own path towards socialism. Among the Revolution’s inheritances was a well-developed means of mass communication and a U.S.-trained labour force. Overnight these advertising experts and art school kids would turn into the graphic artists of the Cuban Revolution. Like the artists of the Cuban Revolution, it is the imperative of cultural workers of today to seize what we know in order to dream and to construct a world that is not only possible, but necessary.
- Topic:
- Communism, Imperialism, Arts, Culture, and Revolution
- Political Geography:
- Cuba and North America
8. India’s Communists and the Elections of 2019. Only an Alternative Agenda Can Defeat the Right-Wing.
- Author:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
- Abstract:
- Ahead of the 2019 elections in India — the largest exercise of electoral democracy in the world– Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) discusses the current political context in the country and the left-led resistance to the deepening assault on basic human rights led by India’s right-wing.
- Topic:
- Communism, Elections, Political Parties, and Leftist Politics
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
9. Communist Parties In Russia, Ukraine and Moldova: Struggling with popular demands
- Author:
- Jussi Lassila and Ryhor Nizhnikau
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The appeal of left-leaning ideas is on the rise in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova. Nonetheless, the main left-wing parties, particularly the communists, remain stuck in the past and at odds with the interests of the electorate. The communists have gradually transformed from opposition forces and political competitors into conformists of the ruling elites. This new function dictates their key interest in maintaining the stability of the system, which also leads to growing dissent among the parties’ members. Embeddedness in the existing political system is preventing the Left from self-reforming and impeding their transformation into modern national social-democratic projects. Yet Moldova has shown that in the new political context old ‘Leninists’ can reinvent themselves and become the most popular political project in the country.
- Topic:
- Communism, Political stability, Political Parties, and Participation
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Moldova
10. Hungary under Orbán: Can Central Planning Revive Its Economy?
- Author:
- Simeon Djankov
- Publication Date:
- 07-2015
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- Since the promising start of its transition from a centrally planned economy to capitalism, Hungary has failed to join Western Europe in terms of living standards and democracy. The dominant political figure in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, shares many features with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Both view the increasing role of the state as economically beneficial, and both consider the Western European economic model to be flawed. Hungary is headed towards centrally planned capitalism, demonstrated by the partial nationalization of the banking sector, the monopolization of some sectors of the economy, and the reversal of the pension reforms of 1998. Plagued by the most persistent budget deficit of any post-communist country, Hungary's greatest challenge is to establish a fiscally sustainable growth path.
- Topic:
- Communism, Economics, Politics, Governance, Authoritarianism, and Russia
- Political Geography:
- Hungary and Western Europe
11. Decoding the Soviet Press by Tom Kent
- Author:
- Tom Kent
- Publication Date:
- 05-2015
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Every press has its goals. In the United States, reporters focus on the role of the press as a counterbalance to government power. In some cultures, the press can be tasked with advancing national or religious causes. In the Soviet Union, the press was about serving the interests of the Communist Party.
- Topic:
- Communism, Media, Journalism, The Press, Freedom of Press, and State Media
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Soviet Union
12. Islam and instability in China's Xinjiang
- Author:
- Nick Holdstock
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
- Abstract:
- On March 1st 2014 a knife-wielding group of ten people attacked passengers and passers-by in the railway station in Kunming, capital of China's south-western Yunnan province. Twenty-eight were killed and 113 injured. By the following day the government was describing the incident as a "separatist" attack perpetrated by "terrorists from Xinjiang". The attack in Kunming is the latest in a series of violent incidents in China that the government attributes to radical Islamist organisations that aim to promote what it calls the "Three Evils" of "terrorism, separatism and religious extremism". These acts have predominantly occurred in China's far western Xinjiang region, most recently in January and February 2014. Incidents in other parts of China have been attributed to the same forces.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Communism, Economics, Human Rights, and Islam
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
13. Assessing the People's Liberation Army in the Hu Jintao Era
- Author:
- Roy Kamphausen (ed.), David Lai, and Travis Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
- Abstract:
- The 2012 PLA (People’s Liberation Army) conference took place at a time when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was making its leadership transition from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping. The conference discussion focused on the developments in China’s national security and in the PLA during the Hu Jintao Administration from 2002 to 2012. Key observations are presented in this volume. The most significant ones are Hu Jintao’s promulgation of the new Historic Missions for the PLA, and Hu’s complete handover of power to his successor. The former has turned on the green light for the PLA to go global. The latter is a milestone is the CCP’s institution building.
- Topic:
- Security, Communism, Politics, History, and Military Affairs
- Political Geography:
- China