Kneeling Before the Altar of (Il)-Liberalism: The Politics of Ideas, Job Loss, and Union Weakness in East Central Europe

Abstract

This article discusses the politics of ideas, jobs, and anger in post-communist Europe and it critically reviews Phineas Baxandall's (2004) Constructing Unemployment, and David Ost's (2005) The Defeat of Solidarity. It argues that as the new democracies in Central Europe approach the end of their second decade after communism, they have entered a second stage in the political dynamics of economic reforms. Unemployment and labor anger more generally have clearly not disappeared from the political scene in this stage. But, paradoxically, at a time when liberal forces were on the rise among erstwhile post-communist 'transition laggards' such as Georgia, Ukraine, and Croatia, many first-stage 'transition leaders' have experienced a turn in distinctly illiberal directions. Post-communism's economically liberal elites have achieved remarkable successes - peaceful democratic consolidation, fast market reforms, and EU membership. But they have paid a high price, in the form of lost voters (as politicians) and lost members (as union leaders). The silencing of organized labor and angry workers has accelerated the instauration of neo-liberal varieties of market capitalism and has contributed to fast-growing socio-economic inequalities. At the same time, the uninterrupted functioning of procedural democracy, with peaceful alternations of rival parties in government, now increasingly co-evolves with a decreasing quality of liberal democracy, as new parties have started to mobilize the anger of transition losers along illiberal political platforms.