Drifting from liberal democracy. Neo-conservative ideology of managed illiberal democratic capitalism in post-communist Europe (original) (raw)
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Most European post-communist societies after 1989-1991 appeared to be on the road to liberal democratic capitalism. However, a quarter of century after the change of the system, at least some of the countries – Russia and Hungary in particular (arguably setting a trend for many other nations) – began to drift sharply away from liberal democracy. We treat liberalism and democracy as two distinct dimensions of " good governance ". We interpret liberalism as separation of powers and security of private property rights. We interpret democracy as majoritarian rule. As the regimes shift to illiberalism, secure private property tends to be converted into " fief " (neo-patrimonialism – like during the rule of Yeltsin), or eventually into " benefice " (neo-prebendalism, this turn happened with the rise of Putin to power). While the principle of majoritarian rule is retained, it is also " managed ". But as long as democratic institutions operate, as long as leaders are elected to office the ruling elites of illiberal democracies need a legitimating ideology which can appeal to a broader electorate. We call this post-communist traditionalist/neo-conservative ideology. Post-communist traditionalism/neo-conservatism emphasizes the value of patriotism, religion and traditional family values much like some of the socially conservative republicans in the USA do. Keywords: post-communist capitalism, managed and illiberal democracy, transition from communism to capitalism, neo-patrimonial and neo-prebendal forms of ownership, traditionalism/ neo-conservatism.
Anti-liberal ideas and institutional change in Central and Eastern Europe
European Politics and Society , 2021
Three decades since the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the ideal of liberal democracy is under considerable strain. Recent developments in the region show that democratic institutions do not only evolve and consolidate, but they can also decay. The article intends to provide a comprehensive theoretical account to shed light on the ongoing multifaceted and multi-layered processes of change in the region. Drawing on the literature on the role of ideas and on the body of research explaining ongoing transformations in Central and Eastern Europe, it conceptualises the normative core of anti- liberal ideas. It shows that this core is embedded in a set of narratives pitted against liberal democracy, which take the form of causal stories, put forward values and solutions, being ultimately used to legitimise institutional change in politics (i.e. agency and the social power structures) policies (i.e. how economic nationalism alters the neoliberal model) and the polity (i.e. the rules of the political game). This conceptual map, which is derived inductively from the literature, is meant to guide future empirical studies and theory building exercises seeking to understand institutional change in the region and beyond.
Disenchantment (?) with Liberalism in Post-Soviet Societies
In post-Soviet societies, liberalism has come to be perceived as contradictory to the rule of law and norms of decency, even as the antithesis of order and associated with chaos. However, it may be accurate to talk about disenchantment with misperceived liberalism and a defensive reflex by societies that are struggling with their post-totalitarian burdens in the face of misrepresented liberal ideas. It is important to analyze the reasons for, implications of, and ways to overcome this awkward phenomenon, since the major problems of the region cannot be solved without recourse to liberal ideas. The paper argues that the methods used to bring liberalism to a number of post-Soviet societies, particularly Russia, proved to be wrong. Nonetheless, we have to be optimistic about the prospects for developing liberal ideas in the region. For one thing, contrary to what is usually stated, the seeming disenchantment with liberalism does not follow from the civilizational underpinnings of contemporary post-Soviet societies. The basic ideas of liberal philosophy are not something unwanted by or alien to the great majority of post- Soviet people. Their disenchantment with liberalism is not a matter of general principles, but rather a collateral result of abuses of liberalism and systematic disinformation. It seems proper to assert that, after the collapse of the totalitarian system, post-Soviet societies have returned to their natural path of developing liberal values, which had been seriously interrupted by the Soviet system. A liberal outlook is indispensable to finding durable solutions to most problems and difficulties that have befallen post-Soviet societies. In the examples of Russia and Kazakhstan, it can be argued that a post-Soviet society will inevitably transition to a society with a more liberal outlook, if the internal demands for achieving this goal can be maintained. However, robust internal demands for liberalization can emerge only through promoting a kind of liberalism that is acceptable to the minds and hearts of the people and elites of post-Soviet countries, which takes into account the peculiarities of their economic and social structures.
After Neoliberal Transformation . Authoritarian Tendencies in Central and Eastern Europe 1
2018
is a Czech historian and political analyst currently living in Finland. She holds a Ph.D. in historical anthropology by the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University. Her specialisation is Central European and Russian history and politics in the 19th and 20th century. She regularly comments contemporary Czech and Russian politics and international affairs in several Czech newspapers. Her new book about contemporary politics of Putin's Russia has been published in November 2015. IMPRINT 2018 transform! european network for alternative thinking and political dialogue Square de Meeûs 25 1000 Brussels, Belgium transform! europe is partially financed through a subsidy from the European Parliament. This work by transform! is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at office (at) transform-network.net.
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.
Neoliberalism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism, 2018
This chapter explores the evolution of neoliberalism in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It examines the nature of the transition from ‘communism’, and assesses the degree to which neoliberal ideas and policies were imported ‘from the West’ rather than developing out of a process of East-West interchange. ‘Proto-neoliberal’ ideas and social forces, it shows, were present in Eastern Europe and the former USSR prior to 1989. In the following decades, successive waves of neoliberal reforms were implemented by domestic elites, with the support of Western policymakers, business leaders and think-tanks as well as international organisations. As events since the 2008 crisis have demonstrated, the logic of the transformation was to open up the economies of the region to the exigencies of global capital, while restructuring and bolstering the power of domestic elites. The outcome has been growing disillusionment and public discontent with simplistic attempts to install a market economy and Western-style liberal democracy, as well as with the political forces, at home and abroad, that have pushed this process along. The capitalist triumphalism of the early 1990s has everywhere given way to the dystopian realities of an authoritarian, restrictive and reactionary mode of neoliberal capitalism.
Conservative Turn in Eastern Europe: Political Conservatism in Russia
In this paper I discuss the conservative turn that took place in Russia in the last 15 years comparing it to the recent experience of Hungary and Poland. I show that to a large extent this backlash is of a socioeconomic nature and reflects the people’s frustration with the downsides of the economic liberalization. Moreover, the depth of the original social transformation determined a society’s ability to resist to the conservative trend. In Russia where the modernization processes were the shallowest, the old political elites could regain power sooner and roll back the society deeper. I also overview different conservative schools of thought in Russia and show Putin manipulated this ideology to strengthen his hold on power.
Conclusions: Post-communism, Neoliberalism and Populism in the Semi-Periphery
Law, Populism and the Political in Central and Eastern Europe, 2024
The wave of revolution in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that began in 1989 resulted in the rejection of actually existing socialism, widely perceived as oppressive, and its replacement with neoliberalism. Despite democratic rhetoric, in matters of political decision making, neoliberalism has been decidedly undemocratic relying on "experts" implementing the "objective laws of economics." On the wave of democratisation, the neoliberal ideology supported by a relatively small percentage of society became hegemonic. Although the sense of democratisation was widespread, lawmaking was not based on the realisation of social preferences. On the contrary, it was legislative processes that shaped the society's axiological preferences. The neoliberal bias concerned not only economic policy and legislation, but also judicial decisions. The CEE variant of conservative-social populism can be described as a reaction to the neoliberal hegemony but it must be kept in mind that the semi-peripheral CEE region remains different from the West on various accounts. The problems here are sometimes rooted in Western concepts, (failed) legal transplants, and local reflections of Western disputes. However, even if they are imported, they take very specific forms that require both specific tests and diagnoses as well as original, region-specific solutions.
East European Quarterly, 2005
The collapse of communism across the Central and Eastern Europe was one of the final manifestations of a worldwide spread of democratization over a period of twenty years that began with South Europe in 1974, then continued in Latin America in the 1980s and subsequently moved on to Eastern Asia in the late 1980s and 1990s. Political scientists devoted much effort to account for the timing and modalities of the changes of political regimes and the structural conditions and dynamic processes that made possible this "third wave of democratization," as it is called by S. Huntington. Much of the research in political science is still influenced by an almost exclusive concern with the consolidation of basic parameters of democratic regime in the democracies of Third Wave. The debate on the role of political regimes (parliamentarism or presidentialism) for the development of the new democracies may establish correlations between executive-legislative institutional designs and durability of democratic values, but our work aims here not to discuss the typology of regimes in the new democracies, but to concentrate on the transformation of political discourse within the post-ideological transition process. Within this aspect, the study of the change in the political discourse of the former communist parties during the post-Cold War era will no doubt present the empirical originality of the post-Communist transition. For this purpose, this article focuses on identifying the adaptation process of the communist successor parties during the postcommunist transition and seeks to investigate the extent to which their discourse have changed over time, particularly in accordance with the external factors (or systemic variables).