scholarly journals The Aesthetic Post-Communist Subject and the Differend of Rosia Montana

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Velicu
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
Post Communism ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Rosia Montana

By challenging the state and corporate prerogatives to distinguish between “good” and “bad” development, social movements by and in support of inhabitants of Rosia Montana (Transylvania) are subverting prevailing perceptions about Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’s liberal path of development illustrating its injustice in several ways that will be detailed in this article under the heading “inhibitions of political economy” or Balkanism. The significance of the “Save Rosia Montana” movement for post-communism is that it invites post-communist subjects to reflect and revise their perception about issues such as communism, capitalism and development and to raise questions of global significance about the fragile edifice of justice within the neo-liberal capitalist economy. However, resistance to injustice (and implicitly affirmations of other senses of justice) is an ambiguous discursive practice through which Rosieni make sense as well as partake their sense of Rosia Montana. The movement brings about a public dispute which may be compared with a differend: (in Lyotard’s words), a conflict that cannot be confined to the rules of “cognitive phrases,” of truth and falsehood. This article argues that while post-communist events of “subjectification” are unstable and thus, are to be viewed aesthetically, this same ambiguous multiplication of political subjectivity may facilitate the creation of social spaces for imagining alternative possibilities of development.

scholarly journals Political Economy of Fiscal Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

Competitio ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
George Kopits
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Fiscal Reform ◽  
Public Finances ◽  
National Budget

The reform of public finances has been at the centre of the post-socialist transition of Central and Eastern Europe since the early 1990s. At various stages of the transition, the reform process encompassed the entire gamut of public finances: the national budget, sub-national finances, extrabudgetary operations, and state-owned financial and non-financial enterprises. For the most part, fiscal reform was a non-linear stop-and-go process – often characterised by backtracking as well – and was uneven across countries. Moreover, unlike most reform experience in the rest of the world, fiscal reform in this region took place against the backdrop of a radical break, as sovereign countries emerged from a colonial past following the collapse of the Soviet Union. An important milestone was reached in 2004–2007, when all ten countries covered in this article became members of the European Union. The purpose of this article is to discuss fiscal reform in Central and Eastern Europe from the perspective of political economy. Following an overview of basic reform trends, the article focuses on the principal drivers and impediments to reform in the region. To conclude, the ingredients of successful reform are examined. The article does not provide an exhaustive inventory of reform measures, nor does it offer a survey of broad political economy issues prior to or during the transition period. Country references are intended to serve as stylised illustrations of main points, rather than as a comprehensive documentation of reform episodes. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: H1, H3, P2, P52.

scholarly journals The Visual Economy of “Precious Books”

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Zeina Maasri
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
Art Object ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract Shedding light on the postcolonial Arabic book, this article expands the literary and art historical fields of inquiry by bringing into play the translocal design and visual economy of modern art books. It is focused on the short-lived Silsilat al-Nafa'is (Precious Books series, 1967–70), published in Beirut by Dar an-Nahar and edited by modernist poet Yusuf al-Khal (1917–87). The series engaged prominent Arab artists and foregrounded the aesthetic dimension of the printed Arabic book as a “precious” art object. Situated historically at the threshold of contemporary globalization, this publishing endeavor formed a node connecting transnational modernist art and literary circuits with book publishing and was thus paradigmatic of new forms of visuality of the Arabic book. This materiality was enabled by a network of changes in the visual arts, printing technologies, and the political economy of transnational Arabic publishing in late 1960s Beirut. Relations between these three fields are analyzed through a multifaceted lens, focusing on the book as at once a product of intellectual and artistic practice, a commodity in a capitalist economy of publishing, and a translocal artifact of visual and print culture.

scholarly journals Karl Polanyi in the context of “non-death” of neoliberalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Alpár Losoncz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Sociology ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Anthropology ◽  
Karl Polanyi ◽  
The Third ◽  
Great Transformation

Karl Polanyi’s works have been widely thematized regarding the transition in Central and Eastern Europe. The transition was viewed as the “second great transformation”. Polanyi’s works undoubtedly have numerous followers and it is owing to them that his works have started to be critically interpreted. We are here considering the possibility of reconceptualization of the works after the crisis of neoliberalism. The paper consists of three parts, each focusing on the selected points of Polanyi’s work. In the first part, the goal was to confront Polanyi’s thought with the consequences of neoliberalism; this part is explicitly involved in politicaleconomic reflection. The second part focuses on the discussion about the meaning of embeddedness, and the third part shows the relevance of some reflexions with respect to the money. The second and third part make a dialogue between political economy and economic sociology, economic anthropology, and economic theory.

Populists in Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 581-598
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi ◽  
Stephen Whitefield
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Post Communism ◽  
Mainstream Party ◽  
Critical Citizens ◽  
Advanced Democracies

Much of the literature on populism, particularly in contemporary advanced democracies, focuses on its disruptive power to shake up mainstream party systems, to criticize the functioning of democratic institutions, and to mobilize critical citizens against elites. This chapter considers how populists construct regimes when they have established themselves in power, taking cases from post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe as examples. We identify specific governmental policies, ideological tenets, institutional designs, and discursive practices that enable populists to stabilize their rule and forge representational linkages with large blocks of the population. The chapter questions, however, whether the success of populists in power in these cases provides an indication of how populists might succeed in advanced democracies or whether it is a result of the peculiar political conditions of post-Communism, the absence of which suggests limiting conditions in other contexts.

What Have We Learned from the Collapse of Communism?

2015 ◽  
pp. 642-677
Author(s):  
Olga Nicoara ◽  
Peter Boettke
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Collapse Of Communism ◽  
Communist Countries

Following the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe (1989) and the Soviet Union (1991), the field of comparative political economy has undergone multiple stocktakings and revisions. In the former communist countries, Marxist economics was abandoned in favor of neoclassical economics, which dominated the profession in the West. But was neoclassical theory equipped to suggest adequate institutional arrangements in support of the transformations to capitalism in the former centrally planned economies of central and eastern Europe (C and EE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU)? What have economists working in the field of comparative political economy learned from the collapse of communism and the experience of transition so far? This chapter surveys the thoughts of leading transition scholars and assesses the new lessons learned in comparative transitional political economy.

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