East and West: Travel and communication under alternate regimes; a research note

Using information supplied to international agencies, communication and transportation patterns of Communist and Post-Communist European states are compared with those of non-communist Europe. East European states under Communist rule tended to emphasize public—more easily “scripted,” observed and controlled media and conveyances—over private ones. This emphasis was substantially grounded in obsessive political security concerns among communist regimes. The performance of Post-Communist states indicates a significant shift toward the patterns of non-communist Western Europe and coincides with political regime changes moving East Europe closer to the pluralist West. Diffusion of cars, telephones, railroad traffic, radio, television, newspapers and cinema are analyzed.