ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with several basic questions about the transition from state socialism. It begins with a review of models of social and political order that focus on the nature of elite groups under state socialism. The chapter discusses the nature of the crisis, and some models that might be used to explain it and the role of social movements in it. It examines the place of social movements in the transition from state socialism, and presents some evidence from Estonia, Russia, and Hungary. The nature of the political transitions in Eastern Europe, and the place of elites and social movements in them, can be usefully divided into three phases: pre-transition, transition, and post-transition. The chapter summarizes this in terms of political, economic, and mixed or system crisis models. It concludes with comments on social movements and the future of post-transition societies.
