CAPITALISM BY DESIGN ? Central and Eastern Europe ' s Accession to the European Unio n (original) (raw)
Related papers
Regional Studies, 2001
Following the collapse of state-socialism a decade ago, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) opted for democracy and market economy. There was a widespread belief that transition to a market economy via neo-liberal 'shock therapy' would lead to a quick closure of the wealth gap with the West. A decade later, however, neo-liberal expectations of convergence under market conditions never materialized. Instead, 'New Europe' has been experiencing fragmentation and growing disparity between 'West' and 'East' and also within the 'East' itself. In examining regional patterns, and building on the strengths of institutional and 'radical' approaches, this article challenges neo-liberal accounts of uneven development in Eastern Europe. It argues that diverging economic trajectories should be understood in the light of the structural legacies of both the state-socialist and pre-socialist past and the way these are exposed to, and interact with, international political economy.
The Ghosts of the Past: 20 years after the Fall of Communism in Europe.
Twenty years after the fall of communism in Europe, the post-Soviet countries have not achieved a similar stage of democratic development. They have shown to be too diverse and historically too independent to follow one path of consolidation. This volume questions the premises of transitology, homogeneity, and path dependency theories and suggests an insight into the continuities and discontinuities within particular contexts of the given countries (Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and others). The latter quite often collide with each other and with the Western democratic values, thus putting a concept of a harmonious dialogue or a definite democratic solution for Europe into doubt. This volume challenges one-directional analyses of both communism and capitalism and offers an examination of their inner contrasts and contradictions that are a part of transitions to democracy. The irreconcilable differences between the two systems of ideologies determined by universalisms, such as utilitarianism, liberalism, harmony, and productivity, were derived from the post-Enlightenment heritage of the humanist ideals which today cannot be acknowledged without criticism. To grasp the dynamics of the post-Soviet countries that are developing their own democratic models requires looking into their political struggles, social fissures and complexities within their past and present, rather than observing them from the epistemological standpoint. Such a standpoint is criticised in this volume for seeing those countries as locked in one homogenous totalitarian paradigm. The abstractness of the universalist and utopian concept of transition imposed on concrete social relations is criticised, while the theoriticisation of democratic ideals is related to the political legitimisation.
The politics of economic reform in Central and Eastern Europe
1992
The unexpected collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 ushered in a triple transition: political, economic and social. This course deals with the politics and dilemmas of creating a functioning market economy in the context of dramatic political and social change. In order to appreciate the formidable challenges that the newly democratic regimes were facing at the outset of the reform process, the course first analyzes the economic and political nature of the socialist system, its reform attempts, as well as the causes of its final collapse. The seminar then engages prominent interdisciplinary debates concerning optimal way of "building" capitalism, drawing on literatures from political science, economics and sociology. The debates considered pertain to privatization, restructuring, and the role of the state in the economy and in the transition process. While the readings devote much attention to the domestic politics of economic and state reform, the course also examines the central role that the European Union accession process plays in setting the reform agenda. The final part of the course analyzes the social consequences of economic reform and discusses the institutionalization of social space. Course Requirements 1. Class Participation-20% 2. Reader Responses-35%-one page reflection on the readings (10 required), emailed by 3 p.m. the day before class 3. Country outline and 10 min. presentation in week 4 (group project)-10% 4. Final Research Paper (15 p.) or take-home final exam (12 p.)-35% Readings The following books can be purchased at the Yale bookstore (also on reserve at CCL):
In 1989, 30 years had passed since the fall of communism – a system installed in Central and Southern Europe following World War II. The changes which took place in 1989–1991 were the beginning of a political transformation in the states of Central and Southern Europe as well as in the Soviet Union. The triple transformation encompassed the reconstruction of free market economy, parliamentary democracy, and – in the case of the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, or Czechoslovakia – state building. The aim of the conference is, in particular, to analyze, in the comparative perspective: – the role and significance of the opposition in particular societies of Central and Eastern Europe, – the position and role of churches and denominational associations in the transformation process, – various paths of the transition from the totalitarian system in the communist version to a democratic one in particular states of Central and Eastern Europe, combined with an attempt at a verification of various models of the fall of communism (the domino effect, structural contradictions of centrally planned economy, the breakdown of the faith in Marxism, etc.) – strategies (or the lack thereof) of implementing free market economy, – relationships of the states of Central and Eastern Europe with the external world: the USSR, the USA, EEC, and NATO, and attitudes toward globalization processes, – settlement of the communist past in the form of lustration and decommunization, and the presence of communism in historical memory. Place and time of conference: Poznań, Poland, 24 June, 2019
THE ASCEND AND DESCEND OF COMMUNISM IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE: AN HISTORICALOPINIONATED ANALYSIS
The year of 1989 marked a turning point in world history. During the last six months of that year, the world witnessed the collapse of communism in East-Central Europe. Two years later, communism was abolished in the Soviet Union, and that country began to fall apart. These changes were stunning and unprecedented in terms of their breadth, depth, and speed. In 1989, Hungary and Poland led the way, though cautiously. In February of that year, the Hungarian communist party leadership officially sanctioned the emergence of opposition parties the beginning of the end of the party's monopoly of power. In Poland a few months later, after a long series of roundtable negotiations between the communist party leadership and the opposition, the regime agreed to partially contested elections to the country's national legislature. Within the countries of East-Central Europe, the social, economic, and political changes were as fundamental as were those in France and Russia after their revolutions. In every country in the region the transition to Western style parliamentary democracy meant a fundamental restructuring of the political system, a proliferation of new interest groups and parties, and upheaval within the bureaucracy and administration. At the same time, all of these new regimes attempted an economic transition from centrally planned economies to market-oriented ones with increasing degrees of private ownership of property. Trying to accomplish both of these transitions simultaneously, from authoritarianism to pluralism and from plant to market, was a huge task, and the two occasionally pulled against each other.
Capitalism Reborn, Chaos and the Post-Socialist Freefall: A View from Europe's "New Periphery
2014
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Eastern Europe has not simply rejected communist slogans and privatized state enterprises, creating its own financial oligarchy. It has also become part of the world capitalist economy-its new periphery. … The Communist Manifesto now reads as if it was written just a few weeks ago. … the experience of Eastern Europe and of the Third World shows the vital need for a universalist left as the only real alternative to diverse forms of barbarism (Boris Kagarlitsky, 1999: 124, vii, viii). The Communist icon of the Cold War is now the negative type against which an absolutely idealized capitalist market is both taken to be real and deemed the only sustainable paradigm for universal human organization (Michael E. Brown, 2008: 177).