Reformy socjalizmu i porządek klasowy
Reforms of Socialism and the Class Order

A Normative Change in Central Europe, 1955–1980

Summary/Abstract: In the paper, I propose an alternative perspective on the transformation of state socialism between 1955 and 1980 in socialist Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. I argue that a normative change had occurred in this period, bringing far-reaching transformations in the class order of the socialist societies. These ideological shifts took place in the spheres of relations of production, consumption patterns, and the social imaginary. The developmental doctrines of the Soviet bloc countries were also subject to change. I demonstrate how socialist ambitions to seek alternative modernity gave way to visions of imitative modernisation with the increasing integration into the capitalist world-system. This was accompanied by a growing-acceptance of so-called "meritocratic inequalities" and the deterioration of the working class's situation. The article contributes to the reinterpretation of the systemic transformation as a continuation of certain modernisation tendencies of state socialism.

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