Ivan Volgyes - Social Deviance In Eastern Europe

Social Deviance in Eastern Europe

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edited by Ivan Volgyes

During the last thirty years, under Communist rule, the East European states have attempted to eradicate activities that are deemed deviant from the point of view of the government. But in spite of all efforts, such activities as prostitution, murder, robbery, private profiteering, and even political dissidence continue to flourish. In this book, five specialists on Eastern Europe examine the manner in which the Communist regimes struggle against deviant behavior and examine the results of that struggle.

Ivan Volgyes, a native of Budapest, is currently director of the Graduate Program on Rural Transformation and professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Among Dr. Volgyes's numerous publications are Politics of the Communist Party States in Eastern. Europe: Hungary (with Peter A. Toma) and Comparative Political Socialisation: Eastern Europe.

edited by Ivan Volgyes

First published 1978 by Westview Press, Inc.

Published 2019 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-58836

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28752-8 (hbk)

Perhaps no regime in the history of mankind has attempted to undertake a greater task than that attempted by the Communist regimes: not content with merely ruling over human beings who willy-nilly accepted their rule, these regimes have set out to transform human nature. They set their goals high: they wanted to abolish crime, prostitution, alcoholism, in short all elements that are regarded as social deviance in Western society by altering the bases of human relationships through the adoption of a new form of society, that of "socialism." Basing their ideology and leitmotifs on Marx's analysis of human nature, the Communists, wherever they came to power, attempted to: (1) alter man's relationship to the totality of the means of production, (2) eliminate private productive property, (3) end the alienation of man from las society and from his fellow men and, (4) socialize the individual to act in the interests of the community. They hoped that by undertaking these measures new men could be made, new societies created, and that these new societies would be free of corruption, crime, avarice and other social ills.

In Eastern Europe, more than three decades have passed since the Communists came to power. These were three decades during which there was ample opportunity for social experimentation to end social deviance once and for all. In all these societies at the beginning of their rule the various regimes set down base rigid laws to end the manifestations of social deviance. They punished crime by draconic measures, they chased prostitutes off the streets, out of the bordelloes, and into new, huge construction projects to "rehabilitate" them and attempted to end alcoholism by higher taxes and by active campaigns against this disease.

Thirty years is a short period of time, but the initial optimism of the Eastern European leaders for their wholesale reformation of human order has already waned. Grudgingly, they had to admit that prostitution continues, that bribery and corruption, thievery and embezzlement are quite rampant, that murder and alcoholism are still present even in the new society characterized by another, theoretically "higher" form of economic relations.

More than that, however, because the Communist regimes viewed all political activity that did not quite fit within the modus operandi approved by the current leadership as deviant activity, all forms or manifestations of anti-regime or anti-leadership activities were also labelled as social deviance. The regimes were not necessarily "totalitarian:" they merely held the view that they had the last say over the manner and content of political, social and economic behavior and those who did not agree with their "wards of wisdom" were exhibiting deviant behavior.

Deviance, therefore, in Communist jargon is all behavior that is not approved or justified ideologically by the regimes. Deviant behavior is any act that goes against the accepted ideology of the system and may include economic, social or political activity. Because the Communist regimes attempt to transform the human being in its totality, they include all forms of relations; social, economic and political. These regimes regard the different kinds erf behavior in the same manner: prostitution, private enterprise or political inactivity may all be viewed alikesocial deviance.