Information Technology And Social Transition: A Case Of East European Countries

Since the end of the Cold War, competition in overall national strength has been switching from the military sphere to high and new technology and economy. Meanwhile, the information network revolution is changing not only science, technology and economy, but also military affairs and social life. Information superiority has become the chief point of the competition in overall national strength. In the information-driven world, reforming nations are more and more dependant on their "ability to gain and exchange information". Commercial trade adapts advanced technology to its needs and relies more on the modern communication services such as: data exchange and video link of data transfer, online database access, e-mails and forms. With the development of information technology, especially the invention of the Internet, economy globalization has become the main trend; the state intervention and domination are fading away and the barriers of market competition are being methodically eliminated with the circulation of capital more freely and globally. The market is a type of spontaneous, flexible information processing system. It processes huge amounts of information which is changing unceasingly, with low cost resulting from competition. No single central government organization, with thousands of highly efficient electronic computers, is competent to do it. The information revolution greatly stimulates the market-oriented economy. Under the impact of information revolution, the last fortress of planned economy - the original socialist camp - is also being swept away by the tide of reform.This paper is divided into seven chapters concentrating on the information technology and social reforms of Eastern Europe: Firstly, the author analyzes the influence of information technology on human society, national politics and reforming nations on a large scale; then focusing on the influence of information technology on politics, economy, culture and diplomacy of Eastern European nations. The first chapter briefly introduces the connotation, extension, characteristics and the trend of development of information technology and then discusses its influence on human society and international politics. Nowadays the world is swept by the violent tide of quick information technology development and the pattern of politics has been marked by some subtle changes. On the one hand, the information globalization is speeding up with the quick development of the Internet and makes the international exchange of information convenient and rapid. The information globalization also promotes the development of economic globalization and makes the connection of politics of various nations closer, which is embodied in the appearance of "Digital Earth". On the other hand, the strength of the information has become an important criterion of evaluation of the national strength. National strength determines a nation's status in international society and the contrast forms the international pattern. Information technology stimulates the rise of a new form of society; the way of international political struggle has also been changed under the influence of the information network.After the discussion upon the relations between information technology and social transformation, the second chapter analyzes the impact of information technology on reforming nations. With a weak and relative tendency of the national sovereignty, a nation's important status is further weakened, nation's traditional power is confronted with a challenge and the nations' control over personal behavior becomes looser as well. The rise of cyber society, global economic integration and so on gives nations potential advantages as well as challenges. The Internet is double-edged.The third chapter analyzes the influence of information technology on social reforms of Eastern-European nations. Information technology may accelerate the changes of the social structure. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, social class structure of Eastern-European nations changed from socialist political system of a Soviet Union type into a multi-party parliamentary democracy, including the growing impact of western internet transmission of its political, economic and cultural sovereignty. Information technology deconstructs the original authoritative system of Eastern-European nations. Eastern-European governments' political task in the field of information technology is changing the governments' working mode and function.The forth chapter discusses the effect of the information technology on Eastern Europe state economy. It analyzes the electronic commerce superiority and difficulty as well as the prospects for development of the Eastern European countries after they got rid of the old system. With the tide of globalization, in order to stimulate its economy, Eastern Europe must choose the international economic cooperation instead of what they used to do in the socialist period. Eastern European governments have gradually broken the trade barrier and given freedom of basic trade, strengthening the connections and cooperation among the European regional economic organization. They are active in attracting investors and setting up joint ventures.The fifth chapter discusses the effect the information technology produced on social culture changes in Eastern European countries in relation to the youth's value conflict of Eastern Europe, the change in the status of women and the latest development of Eastern European culture in the age of Internet. The developing Eastern European country was unexpectedly dragged into the digitized survival time when it tried hard to imitate the pattern of western modernization to mold the industrial society. This kind of impact is just like a volcanic eruption for Eastern Europe in the course of reforming. In the time of the new human culture replacing the old one, the Internet has changed Eastern European beliefs, religion renaissance and collision of the new thought, which makes the belief multiple.The sixth chapter focuses on the real truth of the Eastern expansion of the European Union and NATO as well as the analysis of foreign relation. "Returned Europe" has become a powerful slogan to impel the Eastern European country to transform towards Western Europe democratic politics. In the course of joining the Union, considering its safety and economical benefit, the Middle Eastern European country should adopt the foreign policy of "pro-American not against Europe" and pay attention to the relationships with Russia. Joining the Union means involvement with an advanced economic system which is a "Club of the rich". After joining the European Union, "the foreign aid" will become "in portions ". The amount and the domain of aid will be enlarged. The huge asylum system and the advanced military potential of the NATO is the reason why withdrawing from the Warsaw Treaty and joining NATO becomes a collective action of Eastern European countries. Moreover, under the situation of the today's world, grasping advanced information technology is a premise to strengthen the protection capability and the defense ability. The reason why Eastern Europe eagerly joins NATO is that they hope to realize their own modernization of national defense with the help of the information technology of the other countries in NATO.The seventh chapter deals with cases of successful transform in Middle Eastern European countries to analyze the effect on transform caused by information technology. It shows that information technology, which is the motivation of new economy, has already infiltrated the innovation of technology and management of all the fields of national economy. The use of information products and services has changed the traditional industrial structure. The information technology has been widely applied in the business administration, the information retrieval and the operating decisions. The birth of management information system and decision-making system makes the economic management and daily decision-making of the enterprises more and more standardized and scientific.