21. Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe

2018 ◽  
pp. 322-340
Author(s):  
Christian W. Haerpfer ◽  
Kseniya Kizilova

This chapter examines the democratic revolutions that occurred in post-communist Europe since 1989. It first considers the beginning of the decline of communism and the failed attempts to reform communist one-party states from 1970 to 1988 as stage one of democratization. It then discusses the end of communist regimes as the second stage of democratization—between 1989 and 1991. It also looks at stage three of the democratization process, which focuses on the creation of new democracies. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the main drivers of successful democratization in post-communist Europe.

Ekonomika ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borisas Melnikas

The paper aims to evaluate the main features of the creation and development of an integral cultural space in Europe and the main problems of economic development in the context of the enlargement of the European Union and the transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe.The author has used the outcomes of the research done over the recent several years, dedicated to the diagnostics of the problems of transformations as well as economic and social development in Central and Eastern Europe with a special reference to the development of the integral cultural space and human rights in the context of economic development in the European Union.The major findings show that the creation and development of the integral cultural space in Europe is a very complex and controversial process, and in its course various problems and conflicts arise. Therefore, to encourage the creation of the integral cultural space in Europe, appropriate cultural policies are necessary to be implemented.These policies may embrace many priorities including- preservation of cultural diversity;- adaptation and dissemination of integrated European dimensions;- elimination of inappropriate factors within humanism and democracy of all European countries;- provision of equal rights for all groups of modern society.For implementation of key priorities of cultural policies, the use of a number of special pan-European programmes is suggested.The new non-traditional ideas of a possible economic and social development in Central and Eastern Europe are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 962-983
Author(s):  
Myra A. Waterbury

This article uses the case of post-2010 Hungary to investigate the ways in which the concomitant trends of mobility, migration, and demographic decline may intersect to both challenge and bolster the discourses and policies of nationalist, populist governments in Central and Eastern Europe today. Using an expanded conception of “divided nationhood,” it explores the tensions and continuities in the Hungarian government’s populist discourse of protecting the nation as it is projected onto different national populations: Hungarians within Hungary, Hungarian emigrants, and Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries. While fears of migration and population decline provide useful fuel for the particular brand of populist nationalism we see in places like Hungary, the ability of leaders to offer a coherent and effective narrative of protection for the nation becomes significantly more complex when there are multiple internal and external populations to protect. The article highlights the strategies that the FIDESZ government has employed in order to (1) mobilize antimigrant rhetoric while marginalizing Hungarian emigrants; (2) respond to demographic deficiencies while supporting a conservative, populist narrative; and (3) maintain its access to symbolic, political, and demographic resources within the Hungarian minority communities. These strategies include a discursive reconceptualization of migration as something that comes only from outside Europe, the use of social and economic policies to selectively privilege key segments of the nation and exclude others, and the creation of a regional Hungarian nation with Budapest at the center.


1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hibbing ◽  
Samuel C. Patterson

After the collapse of the Soviet empire, democratic parliamentary elections were conducted in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and new parliaments convened, in the early 1990s. How much confidence did citizens in these new democracies have in their new parliament? Under what conditions is citizens' trust in parliament meagre or ample? Public opinion surveys conduced in 1990–1 in nine countries – Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine – provide data for analysing citizens', trusting or distrusting orientations. Parliamentary trust is significantly influenced by perceptions of economic conditions, and by confidence in politicians and government generally but, surprisingly, not much affected by political awareness or involvement levels, political efficacy, or social class differentials. These findings indicate that public confidence in these parliaments will grow with economic prosperity and the demonstrated effectiveness of the government to govern.


2019 ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
Tomasz Łukasz Nowak

Who (and what) was silent about the story told by heteronormative society? And how is the fragment of this story seen by “Others”? The article shows that the time of “queer before gay” includes (in Polish) not only well-known names such as: aunt or pedal, but also slang: ‘lala’ (doll), ‘przyjaciółki’ (friends), ‘siostry’ (sisters in Polish, girls in English), gays “from the outside of society”, as well as heterosexuals who got a ticket to the alternative world of the excluded. I tell this story from the perspective of the performative function of language (Althusser, Austin, Butler) and mechanisms of knowledge/power (Foucault). I focus on the activities of homosexual men encoded in their “hiding language” (sociopolitan gay). I show how the creation of the “homosexual” identity closed the community of aunts and pedals in a precisely defined form. And how camp and queering reality allowed them to function in this form. This article is thus another element of decoding the so-called language of concealment, so-called sociolect of Polish gays (aunts and pedals) and queering history of Poland (part of the queering history of Central and Eastern Europe).


Ekonomika ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borisas Melnikas

The paper aims to evaluate the main features of the creation and development of an integral cultural and economic space in Europe, the main problems of economic and social development and provision of equal rights in the context of the transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe.Transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe are described. The new challenges for economic development and social-oriented changes are analysed.In the paper, results of a research done over the recent several years into the diagnostics of the problems of transformations as well as economic and social development in Central and Eastern Europe are used, with a focus on the development of the integral space and human rights.The major findings show that the creation and development of an integral space in Europe is a very complex and controversial process implying various problems and conflicts. Therefore, to encourage the creation of an integral space in Europe, appropriate cultural policies should be implemented. These policies may embrace many priorities includingthe preservation of cultural diversity;adaptation and dissemination of integrated European dimensions;elimination of factors incompatible with humanism and democracy in all European countries;provision of equal rights to all groups of society.For implementing the key priorities of cultural policies, a number of pan-European special programmes are suggested.New non-traditional ideas regarding the possible economic and social development of Central and Eastern Europe are discussed.


1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. McCluskey ◽  
Richard Almey ◽  
Alena Rohlickova

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimondas Ibenskas ◽  
Allan Sikk

While parties in many new democracies frequently split, merge, change labels, and make and break electoral alliances, comparative systematic research on how these changes are related to each other is limited. This study addresses this gap by conceptualizing change as a result of intra-party conflicts, conflicts in or consolidation of existing electoral alliances, and the formation of new alliances and mergers. We develop measures for each type of change using an original dataset that covers almost 800 party-electoral term dyads in 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in the period between 1990 and 2015. Our findings contradict the idea of party change as a uni-dimensional phenomenon. Instead we find that exits from existing electoral alliances, their consolidation through mergers, and the formation of new alliances and mergers are moderately related to each other, but not with intra-party splits. Our findings suggest that parties and their alliances structure political competition in Central and Eastern Europe relatively well. Moreover, negative consequences of party change on representation and accountability are limited, as under the relative absence of multiple and nearly simultaneous changes in party identity the electorate should be able to follow party evolution.


Author(s):  
Christian W. Haerpfer

This chapter examines the democratic revolutions that occurred in post-communist Europe and post-Soviet Eurasia during the period 1989–2008. It first considers the beginning of the decline of communism and the failed attempts to reform communist one-party states from 1970 to 1988 as stage one of democratization. It then discusses the end of communist regimes as the second stage of democratization — between 1989 and 1991. It also looks at stage three of the democratization process, which focuses on the creation of new democracies. The chapter divides the dynamics of post-communist democratization into three separate paths of development: the path towards consolidated and liberal democracy, the path towards partial and electoral democracy, and the path towards illiberal autocracy. It concludes with an assessment of the main drivers of successful democratization in post-communist Europe.


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