Liberalizam

By the early nineties, a political and economic movement toward
neoliberal economic policy had emerged in almost all postcommunist
countries. It was supported by the countries west of
the now-perforated Iron Curtain, whose societies were not aware
of the far-reaching implications of this paradigm shift. Their governments
glossed over the potential pitfalls with grand promises
of prosperity for all. A good example was German chancellor
Helmut Kohl’s promise of “flourishing landscapes” in East Germany.
This slogan helped him to win the first federal elections in
1990, but became the butt of jokes in later years in view of all the
difficulties besetting the East, and soon the former West of Germany.
As far as Western observers were concerned, the countries
in transition were still on the other side of the Iron Curtain, which
had perhaps thinned but not yet been raised. Social science scholarship
reserved the term “transition” and the more encompassing
“transformation” for the eastern half of Europe. Thus Western
governments, scholars, and commentators implied that Eastern
Europe needed to profoundly change, whereas the West could remain
more or less as it was. In the light of earlier revolutionary
periods, such as those after 1789, 1848, and 1917, they were effectively
pursuing a strategy of containment.

This book narrates and analyzes contemporary European
history from a different vantage point. Instead of dealing with
Eastern Europe as a territorial container and enclosed system, it
shows how the changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall affected
and “cotransformed” Western and eventually southern Europe.
This has also informed the intinerary by which the reader travels
through Europe and its most recent history. This is not an occidentalist
history of Europe like a great number of older books,
which Norman Davies once mocked as “Euro-history.” It is,
rather, a European history narrated from an Eastern angle, from
the perspective of the peoples who ended communism, tore down
the Wall, and then underwent unprecedented political, social, and
economic change. Hence the reader will find more information on
the history of Poland and Germany than on, for instance, France.
But obviously no history of Europe can cover the entire continent
equally and exhaustively.

While the West lived under the illusion that it would remain
more or less unchanged by the breakdown of state socialism, the
effects of the “shock therapy” in Eastern Europe soon became apparent
in Poland. On a visit to my Kraków friends in fall 1991, I
found the city with its half a million inhabitants shrouded in an
acrid brown haze. The cause was the Nowa Huta steelworks. But
people were glad the chimneys were puffing away because the factory
was at least a source of employment. There were only three
restaurants open in the evening in the city center, as few residents
could afford to eat out. Stores were empty, no longer because of a
lack of supplies, but because of low demand. Hardly anybody had
money to spend. The only thriving segment was the farmers’ markets,
offering onions, potatoes, and other basic foodstuffs at low
prices. Was this the new order that the proponents of free market
economy had promised? Where were the economic reforms supposed
to be heading?

Gargantua wrote:@paće

"liberalizam je nametnut", za razliku od...?

svuda postoje slojevi mitologizacije i racionalizacije i nametanja sistema kao "prirodnog", palog s neb, šta li

No Country wrote:Којешта, Паће. Нама се “догодио народ”, фашизам. Може можда да се прича како смо у том погледу били “напреднији” од источноблоковске браће, те прескочили ове тобож-сомотске измотације, али свакако нисмо “изузетни”.

ostap bender wrote:cecenija? nagorno-karabah? mada da, jeste jugo situacija specificna a zasto jeste moze se diskutovati. recimo da je juga imala manjak drzave i visak suvereniteta u odnosu na druge istocnoevropske aktere plus je vec bila usla u neku proto-austerity pricu.

Gargantua wrote:@ncom

pa nijedna država nije bila u toj situaciji.

višedelna komunistička federacija u raspadu - takve su bile 2 (sssr i sfrj). rusija je zadržala pravni kontinuitet, status nuklearne sile, mesto u savetu bezbednosti, bila nesporno najbogatija i najrazvijenija republika itd.

opet, buškala je malo sa strane odmah i tada (pridnjestrovje, gruzija, donekle centralnoazijske republike ali to je malo drugačija priča), i 25 godina kasnije se bavi "rusofonim" stanovništvom u zagraničju.

No Country wrote:Којешта, Паће. Нама се “догодио народ”, фашизам. Може можда да се прича како смо у том погледу били “напреднији” од источноблоковске браће, те прескочили ове тобож-сомотске измотације, али свакако нисмо “изузетни”.