By the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in most parts of Eastern Europe, high expectations associated with postsocialist transition have been substituted by disillusionment. After 1990, Eastern Europe has been internationally treated with a low-interest acknowledgement of what was understood as a slow and erratic, but unquestionable process of integration in a Western-dominated world order. In the context of today’s geopolitical reorganization, East European examples of authoritarian politics once again become discussed as significant reference points for Western and global politics. This book represents a contribution to this debate from a distinctive East European perspective: that of new left scholars and activists from the region, whose lifetime largely corresponds to the transformations of the postsocialist period, and who came to develop an understanding of their environment in terms of its relations to global capitalist processes. A both theoretical and empirical contribution, the book provides essential insights on topics conventionally associated with East European transition from privatization to the politicized slogans of corruption or civil society, and analyzes their connection to the newest reconfigurations of postsocialist capitalist regimes. As a contribution to contemporary debates on the present global socio-political transformation, this collection does not only seek to debate analytical statements, but also to change the field where analytical stakes are set, by adding perspectives that think Eastern Europe’s global relations from within the regional context and its political stakes.
Author(s): Agnes Gagyi, Ondřej Slačálek
Series: International Political Economy Series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 285
City: Cham
Foreword
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Building Dialogue
The Structure of the Book
References
Life in Transition and in Crisis. The Political Autobiography of a Generation
The Failure of 1989
Three Overlapping Crises
Conclusion
References
When Did a Transition to Capitalism Start in Serbia?
Transition
Socialism vs. Capitalism
Contested Reproduction
Yugoslav Socialism
Market Reforms
Conclusion
References
The Restoration of Capitalism in Slovenia and Croatia
The Formation and Demise of “really Existing Socialism” in Yugoslavia
The Restoration of Capitalism in Croatia: The Transformation of “technocracy” into a National Capital Class Blocked by Bureaucracy
References
Bosnia and Herzegovina After the Transition: Forever Postwar, Postsocialist and Peripheral?
On Being Peripheral
Approach and Methodological Notes
From Socialist Yugoslavia to Privat(Ized) Bosnia
Back to the Socialist Future?
By Way of Conclusion
References
Ukraine and the (Dis)integrating “Empire of Capital”
Ukraine’s Capitalism With a Twist
Survival Myths of Systemic Failure
Social Forces and the Making of Ukraine’s Multilevel Crisis
Hope, Farce, and Paving the Way of the “Collective President”
References
Reconfiguring Regimes of Capitalist Integration: Hungary Since the 1970s
The Crisis of the Post-1956 “Bridge-Model”
Post-socialist Transition and the Neoliberal Accumulation Regime
State-Class Reconfiguration as Part of Dependent Development After 2010
Dependent Neomercantilism in Export Manufacturing
Building Domestic Capital in Domestic Services
Strengthening National Finance Capital and Reorganizing Financial Dependence
Conclusion
References
Czechia 30 years On: An Imperfect Oligarchy Without Emancipatory Alternative
Periodizing Czech Capitalism
First Interregnum (1990–1992) and Neoliberal Nationalist Rule (1992–1997)
Second Interregnum (1997–2002) and Globalist Rule (2002–2010)
Third Interregnum (2008–2013) and Open Oligarchic Rule (2013–)
Hegemonic Discourses
Market as Normalcy, Reparation, Efficiency and Justice: Neoliberalism and Anti-Communism
“Civil Society” Elitism vs. Aggressive Majoritarianism: Discourses of Democracy
Market, Corruption, Colony: Explaining Inferiority in the European Context
In Place of Conclusion: Is There a Space for Any Left-Wing Alternative?
References
Post-dissent and the New Right: Problems and Potential of post-Communist Dissent in Slovakia and Beyond
The Phenomenon of Post-Dissent: Still Fighting the Last War
Slovakia’s Left and Right in Transition: Crony Capitalism vs. The Race to the Bottom
Dissent in Defense of Consensus
From Engaged Citizens against the State to “Ordinary People” against Difference
Towards a New Dissent?
References
The Shame Movement in the Context of Georgia’s 30 years of Transformation: A Gramscian Analysis of Civil Society
Civil Society in Post-Socialist Settings: How to Understand Civil Society as Part of a Gramscian Extended State?
Civil Society in the Context of Georgia’s 30 years of Post-Socialist Transformation
“Post-Revolutionary” Civil Society—Civil Society in Government
Sirtskhvilia as a Party-Movement and a Part of an “Extended State”
Conclusion
References
The Roots of the Moralization of Politics in Post-1989 Bulgaria and What It Means for the Left
Vicious Circle of Austerity and Poverty in Post-1989 Bulgaria
The Ideology of Anti-corruption and the Post-political Condition
From Economic Liberalization to the Moralization of Politics
Challenges Before the New Left
References
The New Protest Movements and the Left in Russia: To Overcome the Crisis of Hegemony
Introduction
The Russian Left
The “Bolotnaya” Protests and Aftermath
The Argument
Before 2011: The Crisis of Hegemony
The Eventful Protest
Politics of Authenticity and the State’s Response
The Struggle Continues
The Current Crisis and the Navalny’s Movement
What Is to Be Done
References
Fear, Doubt and Money. War of Ideas, Production of Ignorance and Right-Wing Infrastructures of Knowledge and Hegemony in Poland
Introduction: Pastor in the Borderlands and the World Youth Day
“War on Gender” and the “latinization” of Poland
Conservative Anti-international
Weaponized Philanthropy: The “Kochtopus” and the Long Shadow of the Cold War
In the Mist of Doubts, Might Is a Winner
The Unfulfilled Promise of “Real Socialism”
Let’s Talk About Logistics
References
Conclusion: Seven Excursions into the Ideological Landscape of Eastern Europe
Temporal Imagination
Spatial Imagination
Anti-political Imagination
References
Index
