1. Better off in communist times?
A comparative assessment of nostalgia and well-being in Romania and Poland
Sergiu Bălţătescu, Associate Professor, University of Oradea, Romania
Monika Prusik, Ph.D., University of Warsaw, Faculty of Psychology
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
RESULTS
25 years after the fall of communism, there are still signs of nostalgia for that period in many European post-communist countries. Fashion, music, movies, TV shows, advertisements, and art exhibitions referring to the period are popular. National polls on representative samples show that Poles as well as Romanians do not make a positive assessment of the changes after 1989 (Figures 1 & 2) which might lead to the conclusion that there are possible sources of nostalgia. However, the nature of the relationship between perception of current life and satisfaction with past life is much more complex (Prusik, 2011) and falls beyond the scope of this study. Nevertheless, as a first step we have decided to present some basic comparative statistics showing the similarities and differences between nostalgia in Poland and Romania.
Specifically, we have tried to compare the perception of current life vs. life before ‘89 in both countries and to see how it is shaped by the most important socio-demographic characteristics.
Happiness with the current (2010) and the past life (before ‘89) among Romanian and Poles of at least 40 years old
In a study conducted in 2009, 72% of the Romanian respondents over 38 years old reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives before 1989, while only 47% of them reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives in the present times. In a Polish survey conducted for the same period of time, also on a representative national sample, 64% of the respondents aged 40 and older assessed their lives before 1989 as being rather good, good or very good, whereas less than 46% of them reported that they felt that their present lives were rather good, good or very good. The described phenomenon might be considered one of a symptom of persistent nostalgia affecting a large part of the population in both countries. Moreover, there are data which show that this particular phenomenon is not only limited to these two countries, but might be quite common in the post-communist countries in general, being thus even more important and worth of scientific analysis. We compared the results of polls conducted in Romania and Poland. Using multivariate techniques, we test three explanatory hypotheses: the role of socio-demographic characteristics of participants in both studies (middle age and elderly people in post-communist countries are usually less happy than younger people), some biases in remembering the past (forgiving, prospect, and reconstruction of the past) (Hagerty, 2003), and collective memory effects (Halbwachs, 1952/1992). We will also discuss the importance of the results in the context of the main social psychological theories of remembering as well the possible contribution of the results obtained for the political and economic reforms policies in Central and Eastern Europe.
References
Hagerty, M. R. (2003). Was Life Better in the “Good Old Days”? Intertemporal Judgments of Life Satisfaction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4(2),
Halbwachs, M. (1952/1992). On collective memory. Edited and translated by Lewis A. Coser. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Figure 3. Percentage distribution of satisfaction with current (2010) and past life (before ‘89) among Romanians.
Figure 4. Percentage distribution of satisfaction with current (2010) and past life (before ‘89) among Poles.
Nostalgia* and socio-demographic factors
Figure 5. Mean distribution of ISN* by age categories in Romania (RO) and Poland (PL).
Figure 6.Mean distribution of ISN* grouped by gender in Romania (RO) and Poland (PL).
Figure 1. Assessment of changes that took place in Romania after 1989 (in 2010); Source: Romanian Diagnosis of Quality of Life N = 1141, age ≥ 18
Figure 7. Mean distribution of ISN* grouped by education in Romania (RO) and Poland (PL).
Figure 8. Mean distribution of ISN* grouped by size of locality in Romania (RO) and Poland (PL).
Figure 2. Assessment of changes that took place in Poland after 1989 (in 2005); Source: Polish General Social Survey N = 1276, age ≥ 18
* Index of Sociological Nostalgia –INS-(Romania) = (Zscore Life satisfaction before ‘89 – Zscore Life satisfaction now) * 2
* Index of Sociological Nostalgia –INS- (Poland) = (Zscore Life satisfaction before ‘89 – Zscore Life satisfaction now)
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS
METHODS AND MATERIALS
The comparison of data results has revealed that a high percentage of both Romanian and Poles are disappointed with the changes after 1989, probably (if direct comparison of the data would be adequate methodologically) with higher levels of dissatisfaction with the reforms after ‘89 among Romanians.
Since the assessment of happiness/satisfaction with life before ‘89 and with current life (2010) in both countries were measured by slightly different questions with different range of Likert’s scale attached, the direct comparison of results should be done carefully. Nevertheless, 58% of Romanians are dissatisfied with their current life compared to 17% of Poles assessing their current life more or less negatively. At the same time, 42% Romanians and 58% Poles find their present life to be satisfying.
In terms of the life before ’89, 80% of Romanians and 83% Poles find their life in the past being satisfying or good whereas only 20% or Romanians and 3% of Poles see their life under communism as being not positive for them. The results of the assessments of the life before ‘89 provide grounds to believe that the degree of nostalgia in both countries is similar. Some differences in numbers might be due to the fact that in the Polish study participants were able to indicate the neutral answer, which was not allowed in the Romanian study. It is clear that the assessment of current life differs widely among both countries. This discrepancy might be related to different factors but we believe that the current economic conditions and the different speeds of consolidation of democratic institutions in either country might play a significant role.
Some of socio-demographical factors are related to the levels of nostalgia as ISN:
Age seems to play a similar role in both countries. Those who are the most satisfied with their life before ‘89 are mainly aged and 60-69, so the relationship is definitely not linear. This outcome may be explained to some degree by Erikson’s stage of generativity within the theory of psychosocial development (1950), as well as by the Generational Resources Hypothesis (Pennebaker & Banasik, 1977).
Gender turned out to be a factor of no significance for both countries. Indeed, we did not make any assumptions about gender being a significant factor for the distribution of nostalgia.
The role of education seems to be almost identical for both countries. The less educated Romanians and Poles are, the higher level of nostalgia will be found. The relationship is clearly linear in nature.
The outcomes related to community size are not conclusive. The levels of nostalgia for Romanians and Poles living in big cities seem to be low and of similar levels, while the highest levels of nostalgia are present in small towns for Romanians but in villages for Poles.
As further steps, deeper level analysis are to be performed, and qualitative data will be analyzed, in order to obtain similarities and differences in perception and assessment of the past for both countries. Specifically, three hypotheses will be tested.
Nevertheless, first comparisons of Romanian and Polish sample have revealed similarities in perception of the past under communism.
The Romanian data were collected within the survey "Romania in 2009 vs. Romania in 1989 in the population’s opinion", financed by the National Journal and conducted by the Center for Urban and Regional Sociology, in September-October The sample was representative for the population of over 38 years (N = 1039). Data was collected through face-to-face interviews. The questions were focused on the perception of the present situation compared to that of 1989, on the changes that took place after 1989 at the professional, living standards and leisure levels, as well as on the specific concerns and fears of today’s and yesterday’s Romanians. For compatibility purposes we have selected only respondents aged 40 and over (N = 961).
The Polish data were collected within the project entitled “The lost paradise? Nostalgia for the Polish People’s Republic and the role of the collective memory mechanism”. Computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) were carried out with representative sample of Poles (N = 614; age 40-90) in February of Apart from the large number of original polling questions (Lewicka & Prusik) and several psychological scales (Index of Nostalgia Proneness, Perceived Collective Continuity, National Identifications Scale) the participants in the study were simply asked to assess their general and particular (ten areas of life) satisfaction of life before ’89 and current life. Socio-demographical measures were taken as well.
SUPPORT
The Polish research was supported by grant N N awarded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
CONTACT
Monika Prusik, Ph.D.
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Psych.
mobile: (+48)
Sergiu Baltatescu, Associate Professor
University of Oradea, Depart. of Sociology
website: