Radicalised Transformation, the Institutional Tensions and Modernisation Challenges

Abstract

Draws on recent modernization theory & discussions of postmodernity to suggest a theoretical approach to the analysis of postcommunist institutional change in Central & Eastern Europe. Modernization is taken to be an evolutionary process in the direction of societal subsystem functional differentiation with institutional features such as economic extensification & intensification, social mobility, specialization, functionalization of values, & (sometimes) institutionalization of conflicts. This framework is applied to assess intended & unintended social consequences of economic transformation in the Czech Republic. It is concluded that simultaneous economic & political modernization are causing interinstitutional conflicts, resolution of which requires a legitimate arena for voicing social claims &/or the creation of intermediary capacities to avert direct institutional confrontation.