Political participation in communist systems.

The authors of the essays in this book are among a growing number of Western scholars who have refused to accept the umbrella term "mobilization" as an adequate explanation of the participatory activi ties and agencies in the states that call themselves Marxist. Within Marxist-Leninist polities today, there are a growing number and variety of participatory mechanisms derived, yet often differing, from Soviet archetypes. In addition, there is an increasing amount of available data concerning participation. As the studies presented here show, social scientists are finding it possible to study not only the participatory activities of citizens, but also their political involvement, behavior, and attitudes. As a result, research and case studies such as these are beginning to establish the extensive, substantive base of knowledge about citizen participation in a variety of communist states that is essential if meaningful, wide-ranging, cross-cultural comparisons are to be made.

As this base of knowledge grows, it offers increasingly fruitful opportunities for the systematic comparative study of noncommunist as well as communist political institutions and systems. Examination of individual cases from this substantially broadened comparative perspec tive will help to dispel existing stereotypes, while attempts to classify the political institutions and practices of different countries according to common functional categories will help to establish far more accurately than we can now, what is or is not unique with respect to those particular political systems. Not least in importance, this ap proach will greatly enhance our understanding of the countless varieties of instrumentalities that perform functions common to all political systems. The future promise and significance of this kind of systematic comparative study can scarcely be exaggerated.