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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Stakeholder Thinking and a Pedagogical Approach in Public Relations Processes: Experience From Transition Societies

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description

Public relations (PR) and communication management (CM) processes have mostly been studies in stable democratic societies. This article, focusing on the republics of the former Soviet Union in Central and Eastern Europe, takes a stakeholder analytical approach to the processes of PR and CM in such transition societies and the emergence of Western-style PR and CM concepts during the change from totalitarianism to democracy. Selected state institutions and businesses operating before, during, and after the transition period were examined; personal and questionnaire interviews were conducted, and policy documents and media texts were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative analysis and the innovative experience method. The results are presented in discussion format and indicate that if democracy, through the failure of PR and CM, does not match social expectations, the systems of totalitarianism are sufficiently durable in the public memory to return under democratic rules.