IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/intorg/v39y1985i01p1-46_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The empire strikes back: the evolution of the Eastern bloc from a Soviet asset to a Soviet liability

Author

Listed:
  • Bunce, Valerie

Abstract

The structure of the Soviet bloc would appear to be ideal for the maximization of Soviet domestic and foreign interests. The actual ledger of Soviet gains and losses from control over Eastern Europe, however, reveals a different picture. Over the postwar period Eastern European contributions to Soviet national security, economic growth, and domestic stability have declined. This decline in the value of empire to the Soviets is a function of three factors. The first is growing regime-society tensions in Eastern Europe as a result of East Europe's dependence on the Soviet Union and the derivative structures of its Stalinist political economies. The second is the Soviet role within the bloc as a political and economic monopoly and monopsony. And the third is the unexpected costs, both to the Soviet Union and to Eastern Europe, that attended the bloc's reunion in the early 1970s with a global capitalist system in crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Bunce, Valerie, 1985. "The empire strikes back: the evolution of the Eastern bloc from a Soviet asset to a Soviet liability," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-46, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:39:y:1985:i:01:p:1-46_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020818300004859/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen G. Brooks, 1999. "The Globalization of Production and the Changing Benefits of Conquest," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 43(5), pages 646-670, October.
    2. Maria Csanadi, 2001. "A Model Explaining Social and Political Change of Party-states Structural and Dynamic Background of Similarities and Differences in Reproduction, reforms, Collapse and Transformation," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 0101, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    3. Erik Gartzke & Dominic Rohner, 2010. "To conquer or compel: war, peace, and economic development," IEW - Working Papers 511, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    4. Gomes, Luiz, 2018. "The collapse of Real Socialism in Eastern Europe: linking external and internal causes," MPRA Paper 87663, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Rawi Abdelal, 2010. "The Profits of Power: Commercial Realpolitik in Europe and Eurasia," Harvard Business School Working Papers 11-028, Harvard Business School, revised Mar 2011.
    6. Michael C. Horowitz & Paul Poast & Allan C. Stam, 2017. "Domestic Signaling of Commitment Credibility," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 61(8), pages 1682-1710, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:39:y:1985:i:01:p:1-46_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ino .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.