Drifting from liberal democracy. Neo-conservative ideology of managed illiberal democratic capitalism in post-communist Europe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v1i1.28Abstract
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 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 neo-conservative ideology. Post-communist neo-conservatism emphasizes the value of patriotism, religion and traditional family values much like some of the socially conservative neo-cons in the USA do. On the other hand, unlike their American soul brothers, the post-communist neo-cons attribute the critical role of preserving these values to the state.References
Aslund, Anders. (1995). How Russia Became a Market Economy? Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution
Anderson, Perry. (2007). “Russia’s Managed Democracy”, London Review of Books, No.2. pp. 2-12
Békési, László. (2014). “A maffiaállam gazdaságpolitikája” (The economic policy of the mafia-state) in in Bálint Magyar (Ed) Magyar Polip, 2. Budapest: Noran Libro, pp. 241-260
Berman, Sheri. (2014). “Global Warning. Francis Fukuyama’s Political Order and Political Decay”, New York Times, Sept. 11.
The Big Seven – Russia’s Financial Empires. (1998) www.worldbank.org/htlm/prddr/trans/feb98/bigseven.htm
Boda, Zoltán and András Körössényi (Eds). (2012). Van irány? Trendek a Magyar politikában. Budapest: MTATKPTI
Bokros Lajos. (2014). “Kár az orvosra haragudni” (Do not blame the doctor), Vasárnapi Hírek, October 19: 11
Buchanan, Pat. (2013). “Is Putin one of us?” December 17, see also http://www.rightwingwatch.org
Cannady, Sean and Paul Kubicek. (2014). “Nationalism and Legitimation for Authoritarianism – a comparison of Nicholas I. and Vladimir Putin”, Journal of Eurasian Studies, No.5, pp. 1-9
Carothers, Thomas. (2002). “The end of transition paradigm”, Journal of Democracy 13 (1): 5-21
Center for Strategic Communication. (2013). Putin: World Conservatism’s New Leader. Summary http://top.rbc.ru/politics/10/12/2013/893963.shtml
Eyal, Gil. 2000. “Antipolitics and the Spirit of Capitalism: Dissidents, Monetarism and the Czech Transition to Capitalism”, Theory and Society 29(1): 49-92
Eyal, Gil, Ivan Szelenyi and Eleanor Townsley. (1998). Making Capitalism without Capitalists. London: Verso
Franklin, Peter. (2013). “Vladimir Putin - not, in fact, a Tory”,
The Home of Conservatism. http://www.conservativehome.com/the-deep-end 2013/12/Vladimir-Putin-in-fact-not-a-Tory
Fukuyama, Francis. (1992).The End of History. New York: The Free Press
Fukuyama, Francis. (2014). Political Order and Political Decay. New York: Farad, Straus and Giroux
Gati, Charles. (2013). “Hungary’s Backward Slide”, New York Times, December 12
Gagyi, Agnes. (2014). “Az anti-populizmus, mint a rendszerváltás szimbolikus eleme” (Anti-populism as one of the symbolic elements of the change of regime). Fordulat, 21: 298-316
Gerth, H.H. and C. Wright Mills (Eds). (1946). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press
Hamza, Gábor. ND Past and Present of Constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe. MS.
Hegedűs Zsuzsa. (2013).”Orbán igazi szociáldemokrata” (Orbán, a genuine social democrat), Heti Válasz, December 4.
Hill, Fiaona and Clifford Gaddy (2013). Washington, D.C. Brookings Focus Book
Hunter, Jack (2011). “What is Neoconservative? The American Conservative, June 23
Huntington, Samuel. (1991).The Third Wave. University of Oklahoma Press
Jowitt, Ken. (1996). “Undemocratic past, unnamed present, undecided future”, Democeratizatsiya, 4 (3): 409-419
Kesby, Rebecca. (2012). “Why Russia locks up so many entrepreneurs?” BBC News Magazine, July 4, http://www.bbc.co.uk/magazine-1870657
King, Lawrence and Ivan Szelenyi. (2005).”The new capitalism of Eastern Europe”, in Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg (Eds). Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Klebnikov, Paul. (2000). Godfather of the Kremlin. New York: Harcourt
Kolosi Tamás and Iván Szelényi. (2010). Hogyan legyünk milliárdosok? (How to become a billionaire?) Budapest: Corvina
Kornai János. (2011). “Számvetés” (Taking stock), Népszabadság, January 6.
Kornai, János. (2014). “Fenyegető veszélyek” (Threatening dangers), Élet és Irodalom, May 23
Ladányi János and Iván Szelényi. (2014). “Posztkommunista neo-konzevatizmus” (Post-communist neo-conservatism). Élet és Irodalom, February 21
Lobello, Carmel. (2013). “Why being an entrepreneur in Russia could land you in jail?” The Week, August 9, http://theweek.com/article/index/248137
Magyar Bálint (Ed). (2013). Magyar Polip. Budapest: Noran Libro
Magyar Bálint (Ed). (2014). Magyar Polip 2. Budapest: Noran Libro
Magyar Bálint. (2014). “A posztkommunista maffiaállam rendszerképző sajátossága” in Bálint Magyar (Ed) Magyar Polip, 2. Budapest: Noran Libro, pp- 7-46.
Manza, Jeff and Christopher Unger. 2006. Locked Out: Fellow Disenfranchisements and American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press
Mill, John Stuart [1859] (1993). On Liberty, in John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism; on Liberty; Considerations on Representative Government; Remarks on Bentham’ Philosophy. London: Everyman’s Library, pp. 69-185
Miszlivetz, Ferenc and Jody Jensen (Eds) (2014) Reframing Europe’s Future. Challenges and Failures of the European Constitution. London: Routledge
Montesquieu. [1748] (1989). The Sprit of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Murray, Charles (1984). Losing Ground: American Social Policy, New York: Basic Books.
Naim, Moises. (2012) ““Mafia States”, Foreign Affairs, May-June
Pipes, Richard. (2005). Russian Conservatism and its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press
Putin, Vladimir Ilyich. (2013). Presidential address. http://russialist.org/transcript-presidential-address, December 12.
Ripp Zoltán. (2014) “Ellenzék a centrális erőtérben: a mafia állam ellenzéke” (Opposition in the centralized political system: opposition to mafia state), in in Bálint Magyar (Ed) Magyar Polip 2. Budapest: Noran Libro, pp. 97-128
Schöpflin, György. 2014. “Europe. An Epistemological Crisis”, in Ferenc Miszlivetz and Jody Jensen (Eds). Reframing Europe’s Future. Challenges and Failures of the European Constitution. London: Routledge
Sharafutdinova, Gulnaz. (2011). Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism inside Russia. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.
Shevtsova, Liliia Fedorovna (2000). “Can electoral autocracy survive?” Journal of Democracy, No.3, pp. 36-38
Smith. Adam. [1759] 2006. Theory of Moral Sentiments. Sao Paolo: Meta Libri
Smith, Adam [1776]. 1977. The Wealth of Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Staniszkis, Jadwiga. (1990). “Political capitalism in Poland”, East European Politics and Societies, December 5:127-141
Szabó Márton (Ed) 2006. Fideszvalóság. Diskurziv politikai értelmezések. (Fideszreality. Discoursive political interpretations) Budapest: L’Harmattan
Szelényi Iván. (2013). “Kapitalizmusok a kommunizmus után” (Capitalisms after communism) in Magyar Bálint: Magyar Polip, Budapest: Noran Libro, pp.89-99
Szücs Zoltán Gábor (2006). “Újkonzervativ forradalom. A nyelvi újítás, mint diskurzív stratégia az 1998-as kormányprogram vitájában” (Neo-conservative revolution. Linguistic innovation as discoursive strategy in the 1998 debate on the program of the government), in Szabó Márton (Ed). Fideszvalóság. Diskurziv politikai értelmezések. (Fideszreality. Discoursive political interpretations) Budapest: L’Harmattan
Szűcs Zoltán Gábor. (2012). “A magyar politikai diskurzus változásai 2000 óta” (Changes in the Hungarian political discourse since the year 2000) , in Zoltán Boda and András Körössényi (Eds). Van irány? Trendek a magyar politikában. (Is there a direction? Trends in Hungarian politics) Budapest: MTATKPTI
Tamás Gáspár Miklós. (2014). “Az ellenzéket is le kell váltani”, Élet és Irodalom, January 3.
Taylor, Adam (2013). “Pat Buchanan Tells the Truth About Vladimir Putin that American Conservatives Don’t want to hear” December 17, http://www.businessinsider.com/is-vladimir -putin-a-US-style-conservative-2013-12
Transparency: Corruption by country. (2000-2013) www.transparency.org/country
Trencsényi Balázs. (2014). “Minek nevezzelek?” (By what name can I call you?), in Bálint Magyar (Ed) Magyar Polip 2. Budapest: Noran Libro, pp. 49-68
Vörös Imre. (2014) “Alkotmányos puccs” (A constitutional coup d’état), in Magyar Bálint: Magyar Polip 2 Budapest: Noran Libro,
Weber, Max. [1921] (1978). Economy and Society, Vol. I. Berkeley: University of California Press
Whitmore, Brian. (2013). “Vladimir Ilyich Putin, Conservative Icon”, The Atlantic, December 20 http://www.theatlantic.com/international.archive/2013/12/vladimir-putin-the-conservative-icon
Wooldridge, Abdiran. (2012). “The Visible Hand”, the Economist, January 21
Zakaria, Fareed. (1997). “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, Foreign Affairs 76 (6): 22-43
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This acknowledgement is not automatic, it should be asked from the editors and can usually be obtained one year after its first publication in the journal.
