R. Barry Farrell - Leadership in East European Communism: 1945 - 1970

T HIS WORK brings together some of the most recent thinking in the academic community about political leadership in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It is the product of a conference of several days held in November 1968 under the auspices of the Comparative Politics Program at Northwestern University, at which the participants presented original papers for eventual inclusion in this volume. Following the conference the participants rewrote their papers as they saw fit in light of the discussions in which they participated.

The volume is in four parts. First it examines some theoretical questions associated with political leadership in the European socialist countries. Alfred Meyer surveys Marxist theories of leadership and Carl J. Friedrich discusses Communist leadership in the perspective of his views on totalitarianism. The Hungarian social scientist Andras Hegedus then broadens the theoretical discussion to include some problems of bureaucracy and organization in contemporary society.

provides historical and contemporary descriptive data. F. C. Barghoorn and the editor examine in historical perspective political leadership in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe respectively. Frederic Fleron and Michael P. Gehlen provide quantitative data in their examination of the Soviet leadership. Drawing on his exhaustive biographical data for members of Central Committees in Eastern Europe, Carl Beck analyzes career characteristics of individuals who have come into East European Socialist political leadership over time.

The third part of this book is concerned with the interaction between leadership and some of its publics. It is suggestive rather than comprehensive and in some cases draws on research that may be generalizable but which, in the case of a few papers, is based on research in one country only. The first paper in by M. George Zaninovich is the result of painstaking survey research in Yugoslavia and points to interesting discussion of Party and non-Party attitudes on social change.

attempts not only to look back at the chapters of this book but also to relate them to some of the informal discussions at the Northwestern conference. The writer, Jan Triska, pays particular attention to comments of several of the discussants such as Raymond Mack, Merle Fainsod, Harold Guetzkow, and William Bishop.

Of course, in organizing the preparatory conference and the book itself, not everything worked out as planned. Several individuals whose sage words should have been included could not be reached in time for the conference or had other prior commitments. Andras Hegedus, who had earlier accepted our invitation to attend, decided at the last moment he could not be present, but sent two papers, which have been combined in . Gordon Skilling was in Europe at the time of our discussions and thus his paper came later. The Party Congress in Poland came at about the same time as our Evanston meetings and this timing made it impossible for those invited from Poland to participate. Professor Zeleny was called upon on very short notice to participate on behalf of the Czechoslovak group because of the tragic auto accident in France that resulted in the death of Ota Klein. Professor Franklyn Griffiths of the University of Toronto, who participated in the conference, was unfortunately unable to complete his revised paper in time for the publication deadline.

The chapters included here represent the attitude of the Northwestern University Comparative Politics Program and the Department of Political Science in viewing political analysis from different approaches and methods and in seeking diversity of interpretations and points of view. The subject of interest here is probably too new to scholarship to attempt to prescribe a single methodology or unified set of agreed assumptions. If we had attempted to do so the symposium would probably be less rich in innovation and creativity. We have sought rather to retain that diversity and pluralism, keeping with the tradition of Northwestern, indicated several years ago in Roland Young's Approaches to the Study of Politics. As editor of the chapters here I have regarded it as my responsibility to publish all the papers submitted by the participants regardless of my agreement with them or their agreement with each other, and I have therefore made only changes concerned with style, form, and clarity.

For weaknesses of the preparatory conference and of this volume, I, as organizer and editor, must assume responsibility. On the other hand, it is a pleasure to appreciate the original contributions of chapter authors and conference discussants, and to thank my social science colleagues at Northwestern University for their help and interest. I am happy to acknowledge the warm cooperation of Dean Robert H. Strotz, Provost Payson S. Wild, and Professor Richard D. Schwartz, who as Director of the Northwestern University Council for Intersocietal Studies, on the basis of a grant from the Ford Foundation, provided the financial support both for our conference and for this volume.

As editor, I also express my thanks to those students who volunteered their time and effort to provide administrative assistance in a variety of ways. My graduate assistants, James A. Kuhlman and Michael A. Daniels provided outstanding help. Among other students whose help contributed to the preparatory conference or this book I am happy to mention Gary W. Adair, David L. Bankoff, Dale A. Cowel, Timothy R. Craig, Joanne S. Curtis, Richard G. Evans, Kurt E. Hoffman, Richard M. Johnson, Paul A. McAllister, Jack Murphy, William A. Osborn, Frederick P. Postle, James E. Roselle, John D. Tolson, and Margaret E. Grant.

R. B ARRY F ARRELL