Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution (review)

262 SAIS REVIEW Western Europe. Freedman and Moretón suggest that certain policy decisions create seldomly considered dilemmas for Soviet power. Specifically, a U.S. military presence on the continent legitimizes the deployment of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe, serves as a safeguard against potential West German expansionist tendencies to the East. In the economic and political spheres, Stent and Morse believe Soviet attempts to augment their influence in West European capitals are largely unsuccessful. Nevertheless, indirect gains occur whenever allied disagreements over trading behavior with the Eastern bloc arise. Sharp suggests that in areas of common interests, agreements are attainable. The authors seem to agree that the resolution of certain issues can only be achieved if a regional rather than global framework is established. For the Europeans, a détente based on competitive coexistence with the Soviets is the only realistic policy available. Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution. By Jadwiga Staniszkis. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Reviewed by Bruce Lowry, M.A. candidate, SAIS. Solidarity, Poland's "self-limiting revolution," is viewed from the inside by Jadwiga Staniszkis, a sociologist who was among the intellectuals involved in the factory negotiations in Gdansk in August 1980. Staniszkis describes the mechanics of Solidarity's birth, outlining the problems of pushing through a social revolution in the context of a trade union. The difficulties faced, both within and without the movement, are objectively examined. Staniszkis engages in some self-criticism, suggesting that the intellectuals used their semantic superiority to constrain the demands of the workers. She also describes how Solidarity gradually exhibited increasing institutional rigidity and even authoritarian tendencies. Staniszkis's sociological bent, however, provides the most interesting insights in the work. The history of social protest in totalitarian regimes is portrayed as a regenerative process; different forms of protest emerge, and are absorbed by the authorities, but not without providing the seeds for new forms of protest. Solidarity, a class protest in its initial stages, followed the corporatist form of protest prevalent in the late 1970s. This class protest in a "classless" society has presented the most serious challenge to Polish authorities. While emphasizing societal phenomena, Staniszkis also looks at the Polish ruling group. She describes its strategy in the 1970s as one of "detotalization." Attempting to avoid its own traps of totalitarianism, the party encouraged greater segmentation of the state's activity. The party also tacitly supported the corporatist form of protest, hoping to prevent unity of the opposition. "Detotalization," however, was more cosmetic than real and failed to address the fundamental problems that eventually led to the social uprising of 1980. ...