Zombie socialism and the rise of neoliberalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe

Liviu Chelcea, Oana Druţǎ

Onderzoeksoutput: Bijdrage aan tijdschriftTijdschriftartikelAcademicpeer review

160 Citaten (Scopus)
364 Downloads (Pure)

Samenvatting

Many scholars have asked themselves if and for how long they should use the concept of “post-socialism.” We review some ways in which post-socialism is no longer used productively and suggest that one way to analyze the enduring effects of socialism (a useful role for the concept of post-socialism) is by paying attention to how economic and political elites in Central and Eastern Europe continue to use the ghost of state-socialism as the ultimate boogeyman, disciplinary device, and “ideological antioxidant.” We call this blend of post-1989 anti-communism and neoliberal hegemony “zombie socialism,” and we argue that it is a key component of contemporary capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe. We illustrate briefly some cases of zombie socialism, using data such as EU 28 statistics on labor, wages, work–life (im)balance, income tax, housing, and housing policies to show the effects of this hegemonic discourse. The presence of zombie socialism for almost three decades in Central and Eastern Europe made some of these countries “more” capitalist than countries with longer capitalist traditions in Europe. We join others who have suggested that there is nothing to transition any longer, as the “transition” is long over.

Originele taal-2Engels
Pagina's (van-tot)521-544
Aantal pagina's24
TijdschriftEurasian Geography and Economics
Volume57
Nummer van het tijdschrift4-5
DOI's
StatusGepubliceerd - 2 sep. 2016

Financiering

This work has been supported by the European Research Council Starter?s Grant awarded to Prof. Richard Ronald for the project HOUWEL [grant number 283881]. The authors would like to thank Gerg? Pulay, Adrian Deoanc?, Matthias Bernt, Richard Ronald, Lucian Vesalon, Michael Gentile and Slavom?ra Feren?uhov? for their help and suggestions.

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