No society works exactly like its constitution, and no organization functions exactly according to its official administrative guidelines. In the life of all societies and all bureaucratic organizations — East and West — there exist a whole variety of “informal structures” by which people accomplish their delegated tasks or through which they achieve their own personal goals. In the West, we speak of such informal structures in terms of “networks” or “connections.” Those who “know somebody” can go around the bureaucratic (...) queue or obtain free goods and services which others have to pay for. When the use of such connections becomes too blatant, we call it “nepotism” or “corruption.” When they take on an openly acknowledged market value we call it “bribery.”. (shrink)

Stalinism just does not go away. Fifty years after the Great Purges, 34 years since Stalin's death, the system that bears his name continues to haunt the political and academic Left in the West. As “real socialism,” it continues to oppress the peoples of the East. Years ago, we could console ourselves by “explaining” Stalinism as a “deviation” or “degeneration” from a once purer socialism. Yet this historical accident seems to possess an extraordinary viability. Stalinism has confronted threats to its (...) hegemony by sending in tanks in Budapest, Prague and Kabul. It has withstood the revelations of the Gulag, the debacle in Kampuchea, the military coup in Poland, and twenty-six years of Fidel. (shrink)