Fears in Post-Communist Society

Fears in Post-Communist Society is the first cross-national and comparative analysis of how fear shapes and dominates political, social, and economic life in post-Communist countries. Each chapter analyzes economic fears, fears of catastrophes, worries about internal and foreign enemies, health concerns, and environmental uncertainties and their connection to political, social, and economic life. Each chapter explores rational and irrational elements of the individual's fears and examines the influence of political and social factors. The contributors were able to consolidate results of public opinion polls with other sources of empirical information, such as small surveys, case studies, and focus-group methologies in Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and among Russian immigrants in the U.S. and Israel. ERIC SHIRAEV is a researcher at George Washington University and co-author of The Russian Transformation (SMP 1999) and Anti-Americanism in Russia (SMP 2000). VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University and co-editor of The New Elite in Post-Communist Europe (1999) and co-author of The Provence Versus the Center in Russia: From Submission to Rebellion (1997).