Socialist population politics : the political implications of recent demographic trends in the USSR, Poland and Yugoslavia

Abstract

This thesis attempts to describe the main areas and the main ways in which population trends affect politics in the USSR, Poland and Yugoslavia. Discussion is concentrated on the domestic rather than the international aspects of the problems involved, and special attention is devoted to the fields of ethnic relations and population policy-making. While a loosely comparative framework has been adopted, each of the three main countries is treated as an individual case study. Special endeavours have been made to avoid the repetition and the lack of regional colour and authenticity that comparative studies are sometimes apt to fall into. While considerations of space have prevented extending the analysis to the remaining countries of Socialist Europe, comparative references to them are frequent; and the general chapters 2 & 6 are partly devoted to them. In this way, it is hoped that some of the contrasts and similarities between the three main countries in the study and the other countries in the area will be brought out. A rather fuller statement of the problems tackled in the thesis can be found in the Introduction.