The Silent Majority in Communist and Post-Communist States

This book provides information about opinion polls carried out in communist and post-communist countries. It presents several case studies and addresses the issue of how opinion polling today differs from polling in countries under censorship, which lack pluralist media.

This book takes stock of opinion polls in communist and post-communist states, presents specific case studies and answers the question how opinion polls under conditions of censorship and lack of media pluralism differ from those in liberal democratic societies. These polls were mostly used by the ruling establishment to observe shifts in popular opinion and to anticipate protests. They were hardly presented publicly to inform citizens about the prevailing views in their society. Today, these polls often display stories about everyday life, opinion shifts and the legitimacy of state institutions which cannot be derived from other sources.

Autorentext

Klaus Bachmann is Professor of Political Science at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. Jens Gieseke is Head of the department «Communism and Society» at the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam.

Inhalt

Contents: Klaus Bachmann/Jens Gieseke: Introduction Ji í ubrt: Mapping the Beginnings of Public Opinion Research in the Czech Lands after World War II Dragomir Panti /Zoran Pavlovi : Public Opinion Research in Serbia in the Non-pluralist Period Jens Gieseke: East German Popular Opinion. Problems of Reconstruction Oleg Manaev: Public Opinion Polling in Authoritarian States: The Case of Belarus Klaus Bachmann: Constructing a national myth - the case of the Warsaw Uprising in post-war Poland Patryk Wasiak: The Appropriation of Social Opinion Survey Research by the State Apparatus in Late State-socialist Poland Piotr Tadeusz Kwiatkowski: Martial Law in Poland from 1981 to 1983 in View of Public Opinion Polls Conducted by Official Institutions and Underground Organizations Michä Wenzel: Estimating Trade Union Membership between 1980 and 2012 Using Polling Data Michael Meyen: Surveys on Media Usage in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) Institutions, Validity, and Outcomes Hans Erxleben: The Dilemma of the Party s Own Opinion Research in the GDR. Insights from a Former SED Pollster.