ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on value change, cognitive mobilization, political disaffection, and mobilization of opposition forces. It describes the long-term processes that remodel the political culture, undermine the legitimacy of authoritarian institutions, and mobilize democratizing political forces. The communist modernization model was different from the capitalist one and had distinct consequences. Real income fell by one-third between 1981 and 1990–perhaps the ultimate explanation for the communist leadership’s allowing the “shadow” Solidarity leadership that had been tracking communist failures for a decade to assume responsibility. Regardless of how Polish citizens evaluated socioeconomic change in the communist period, democratization theorists would hold that the fact that change was recorded at all translated into pressure for political reform. More elusive an issue is the level of cognitive mobilization within society. Such mobilization, based on greater awareness of the sources of the country’s crises and the range of alternatives available to resolve them, serves as an indicator of increasing political competence in society.
