chapter 38 Flashcards
a world without borders
Name some forces that drove the world economy towards globalization?
- advances in communication technology
- enormous expansion of international trade
- emergency of new global enterprises
- governments and international organizations that favored market-oriented economics
What US president called the USSR “the evil empire”, noted for his anti-communism?
Ronald Reagan
Reagan’s cold war rhetoric and budgets challenged ________ and the ________ ability to match US spending, but internal changes in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe worked most effectively to end communism and the cold war.
détene; Soviet
Who was the new Soviet leader who came to power in 1985, and represented an effort to address economic deterioration of the Communist regime?
Mikhail S. Gorbachev
As communism unraveled throughout eastern and central Europe, Mikhail S. Gorbachev desperately tried to save the Soviet Union from disintegration by doing what two main things?
- restructuring the economy
- liberalizing society
The Soviet Union collapsed in what year?
1991
Including economic stagnation, an accelerated arms race with the United States that further strained the economy, and obvious signs of discontent, what other main factor contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union (regarding its leaders)?
the rulers of eastern and central Europe were too reluctant to confront the challenge and restructure their ailing systems
What doctrine, enforced by Gorbachev, replaced the Brezhnev Doctrine?
the “Sinatra doctrine” (“I did it my way”)
- each country would be responsible for its own destiny
The end of communism came first in what eastern European country? What two factors pressured the rule of the Communist Party to crumble?
Poland
1. combined trade union
2. nationalist movement
What movement did the Polish government legalize and afterwards agree to multiparty elections in 1989 and 1990?
legalized the previously banned Solidarity movement
Who was the leader of the Solidarity movement and became the president of Poland?
Lech Walesa (1943–)
Who was eastern Europe’s longest-surviving communist dictator who was forced to resign from rule of Bulgaria in November 1989?
Todor Zhivkov (1911-1998)
- two months later, national assembly began dismantling the communist state of Bulgaria
What revolution in Czechoslovakia swept communists out of office and restored democracy by 1990?
a “velvet revolution”
Where did the term “velvet revolution” originate to describe the restoration of democracy in Czechoslovakia?
derived from the fact that aside from the initial suppression of mass demonstrations, little violence was associated with the transfer of power in societies formerly ruled by an iron fist
What did the “velvet divorce” of Czechoslovakia in 1993 do to the nation?
split Czechoslovakia into two new nations: the Czech Republic and Slovakia
In contrast to the nonviolent transfer of power in Czechoslovakia, what happened to the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania?
he refused to acknowledge the necessity of reform
- in 1989 Secuitate, a brutal secret police force, savagely repressed demonstrations, setting off a national uprising that ended within four days and with Ceausescu and his wife dead
Who was the aging leader of East Germany who openly objected to Gorbachev’s ideas and clung to Stalinist policies, but was removed from power by his party as East German citizens were fleeing the country through openings in the iron curtain?
Erich Honecker (1912-1994)
In what year did the two Germanies, previously divided by the cold war, form a united nation?
1990
Describe the feedback loop that contributed to the decline of the Soviet standard of living after collective farms failed to feed the population.
collective farms unable to feed entire population = Soviet government imported grains from the US, Canada, and elsewhere = government imposed rationing to cope with scarcity of essential consumer goods and food = economic stagnation = decline of Soviet standard of living
The state-sponsored health care system in the Soviet Union, resulted in what two demographic trends (regarding infant mortality and life expectancy)?
- infant mortality increased
- life expectancy decreased
Under what slogan did Gorbachev try to revive the Soviet economy?
“uskorenie” or “accleration”
What were the old methods of boosting production and productivity that Gorbachev tried to use, but ultimately showed the drawbacks of centralized economic control?
- bureaucratic exhortation
- harassment
Instead of “uskorenie” or “acceleration”, what method did Gorbachev try using instead after realizing the drawbacks of centralized economic control?
“perestroika” or “restructuring”
- efforts at decentralizing the economy
How did Gorbachev make his program of perestroika or “restructuring” work in Soviet society?
Soviet leader linked it to glasnost, a term that referred to the opening of Soviet society to public criticism and admission of past mistakes