Fears in Post-Communist Societies: A Comparative Perspective

Eric Shiraev and Vladimir Shlapentokh, eds. Fears in Post-Communist Societies: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Palgrave, 2002. xi, 163 pp. Tables. References. Index. $45.00, cloth.

Eric Shiraev and Vladimir Shlapentokh's edited volume, Fears in Post-Communist Societies: A Comparative Perspective, is based on a three-year cross-national research project sponsored by the National Council for Eurasian Studies. The editors have recruited authors from across the former Soviet Union and East-Central Europe to write individual chapters on the worries and concerns of people in Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Additional chapters address the fears of emigrants from the Soviet Union presently living in the United States or Israel. Relying on the results of many public opinion surveys, some conducted as part of this research project but most apparently not, the authors conclude that most of the fears experienced by citizens of post-communist countries are rational, based on a realistic assessment of the conditions in which they find themselves.

If popular fears in the post-communist world have a rational basis, it is fairly easy to predict what they will be. Consequently, many of the findings reported in this book are not overly surprising. Citizens in most post-Communist countries are very worried about economic conditions, but this is less true for those who live in countries where the economy is doing better, like the Czech Republic or Poland. Citizens in Ukraine and Belarus are more likely to worry about the effects of radiation exposure than are people who live farther from the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Younger, more successful people tend to worry less about economic hardship, except in Belarus, where the lack of reform has left these same groups of people more dissatisfied. Some results are more unexpected. Poles, for instance, seem to be more worried about the imperialist aspirations of Americans than of Russians. Immigrants from the Soviet Union to the United States worry more about the return to mass repression in Russia than Russians still in Russia do.

In their concluding chapter, Shiraev and Shlapentokh hint that what worries ordinary citizens matters because demagogues can manipulate popular fears to rouse a troubled citizenry to extra-constitutional action. If so, the data in this book are somewhat encouraging. Mostly, citizens in post-Communist countries are worried about real things: rising prices, threats of unemployment, increasing crime rates, terrorism, environmental degradation, and the health and welfare of their families. Only small minorities are afraid of imaginary threats, like Masonic conspiracies or that an eclipse of the sun might result in the end of the world. As David W. Rohde points out in a brief essay at the end of the book, when people are preoccupied with real-world concerns, there is generally less room for politicians and the media to breed less grounded fears. Of course, the overwhelming preoccupation with economic difficulties remains a potential source for mobilization or manipulation.

Some aspects of presentation make this book less satisfying than it might have been. The treatment of people's fears is mostly descriptive, with some speculation about why people might worry about the things they do, but with little statistical analysis. Each chapter deals with one country, occasionally with some comparable data from other countries. If readers are interested in comparing the fears of one country to another, mostly they will have to do that for themselves. That said, it is not always clear that they can do so. Although each chapter deals with similar issues, there is not enough information about how survey questions were worded to be confident that results can be compared across chapters. For instance, one of the most widespread worries of Russians is the arbitrariness of authorities. This concern is not mentioned for any of the other countries. It is hard to know whether that is because Russians worry about different things than citizens in other former communist countries or because they were asked different questions. Overall, it seems that people in the various countries were asked similar, but not identical questions, at various points over the last decade. Direct comparisons across countries may be hazardous.

Much of the information reported in this book is quite current, from surveys conducted within the past five years. However, the haste to get the book out is evident in the final product. There are rather too many typographical and grammatical errors. Sources referenced in the text are not always included in the bibliography. Insufficient information is provided on the surveys upon which most of the conclusions are based. Some chapters are notably stronger than others. Even so, this slim volume is packed with pieces of information that probably would be hard to find elsewhere. A prodigious number of opinion surveys and some exceptional survey researchers from formerly communist areas contributed to this book. For readers interested in what troubles the citizens of post-communist countries, Fears in Post-Communist Societies is a useful resource.

[Author Affiliation]

Ellen Carnaghan, Saint Louis University