Information on the thesis

The thesis is devoted to the analysis of social and political movements in the Central and Eastern European countries in the 80-90s of the twentieth century, as well as to the research the transformation of these movements into political parties. The analysis of scientific problem, development, theoretical and methodological foundations of social and political movements and political parties research is made in detail. In particular thesis contains key concept definitions with analyzed features, signs, functions, basic typology of political movements and political parties. A distinction between social and political movements and other types of associations (NGOs, trade unions, political parties) is made.

Based on the analysis of the theoretical and methodological background of the research, the concept of “transit movements” related to the anticommunist movements in the Central and Eastern European countries is introduced and a region-wide and national specific nature of their development is studied. The formation factors and common indicators of the transit movements are distinguished, their goal and social structure are analyzed. The evolution of the change in goals of the movements during the whole period of their existence is shown and the interdependence between the level of the communist party influence in a country and the social structure of the transit movement is considered. The peculiarities of the activity of the social and political movements in the countries of the region and the influence of the external factors on their development are shown; in particular, a significant influence of the “Solidarity” Polish trade union on the choice of the activity methods made by the movements in our countries is substantiated. The work also analyzes the main characteristic features of the transit movements in the Central and Eastern European countries with a particular attention being drawn to the publicity and peaceful nature of the movements. In the context of considering the peculiarities of the activity of the social and political movements in the Central and Eastern European countries the format of a “round table” as a means of consensus-building among the social and political movements and the government in the Central and Eastern European countries is considered. The prerequisites and specific nature of the conduct and consequences of the “round table” negotiations in Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary are analyzed.

The thesis considerably focuses on the consideration of the crises of the social and political movements in the Central and Eastern European countries and studies the causes of conflicts and misunderstandings in the governing bodies of the movements. The institutional and value factors of the transformation of transit movements into political parties in the countries of the region are described and their role in the institutionalization of the movements is defined. The consequences and qualitative parameters of the transformation of transit movements into political parties in the Central and Eastern European countries are considered, in particular, it is pointed out that the number of political parties formed out of the transit movements in the countries of the region depended on the homogeneity level of the social structure of the movements. The results of the constituent elections and the subsequent parliamentary elections in the Central and Eastern European countries are analyzed and the peculiarities and consequences of the participation of the movements and political parties formed on their basis in these elections are studied. Based on the performed analysis, the six models of development of the social and political movements in the countries under study are distinguished: pluralistic, national, communist, Baltic, party and coalition.

Keywords: social and political movement, political party, transformation of political system, independence, communist parties, crisis, democratization, revolution, reforms.