ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issues of popular participation and change in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It examines the nature and extent of varous aspects of change in the Yugoslav system. According to David Easton's criterion, political change and adaptation among East European systems has been successful, at least over the short run, just because of their apparent stability and persistence. The open borders and high level of international travel of the population, the more liberal system of political socialization and comparatively low use of ideological education and indoctrination have had a major impact upon the populace. Although studies and theories abound, a perspective widely accepted among Western social scientists is that internal political instability in the form of civil conflict is likely to result from a condition known as relative deprivation. By and large, East European Communist systems have failed to evolve effective political institutions and behavioral patterns for the post-mobilization era of their development.
