Talking about Communism
Talking about Communism

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues that the Ottoman term devlet is a much better conceptual choice for explaining and understanding the so-called communist state. Solcan proposes an original analysis of the (Romanian) communist regime (and state), at odds with the standard totalitarian explanatory model or interpretation. His analysis overcomes the left – right and communist – anti-communist distinction, and proposes a new conceptualization of the communist action through the state, what he better calls the communist devlet. First of all, in this devlet the role of law is secondary because change, even change which transcends the limits set by the law, is more important. What matters most is to suggest that government is associated with the change for the better. The so-called communist state was, in fact, a communist devlet, a bundle of all-encompassing actions, all of them competing for resources, aiming at a change for the better. Enhanced social mobility, even by political purges, is one expression of this urge for change. For this change to happen, the communist devlet needed an activation structure while science and technology have to achieve practical results (and this explains the communist focus on engineering and engineers). The analysis of this activation structure is undertaken focusing on the tension between state stability and improvised, ad hoc change. Conceptualized as devlet, the communist state looks less prone to economic planning, and rather chaotic, unable to support a pluralistic democracy and open to perpetual social identity problems. Movementrather stability is the nature of the communist devlet. In the devlet society, everybody feels rather on moving ground. In these conditions, everybody has to be cautious, prudent.

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