Meandering in Transition

Thirty Years of Reforms and Identity in Post-Communist Europe

Ostap Kushnir, Oleksandr Pankieiev

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781978795372
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This edited collection addresses the dynamics of the post-Communist transition in Central Eastern Europe. Its contributors present a detailed analysis of the events unfolding during the last three decades in the region, focusing in particular on identity-building processes and reforms in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

The contributors outline reasons why some of these states accomplished a decisive break with the Communist past and became members of European and transatlantic structures, while some opted for pseudo-transition and fostered hybrid political regimes, jeopardizing their genuine integration with the West. A group of states which decided to preserve their Communist legacy is also explained.

The collection describes and scrutinizes the formation of geopolitical affiliations and the evolution of discourses of belonging. It also traces the fluctuating dynamics of national decision-making and institution-building, as many of the post-Communist states reconsider and re-elaborate their initial ideas and visions of Europe today.

Finally, the collection brings to light the rapidly changing perceptions of the region by the major global actors—the European Union, People's Republic of China, Russian Federation, and others.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Meandering in Transition
• Part I: “Ideas of Europe” and the Post-Communist Space
• Chapter 1: Shifting the Wall Further East: What Has Left of the “Eastern Europe” Thirty Years Later?
• Chapter 2: The Transition of “Transition”: Assessing the Post-Communist Experience and Its Research
• Chapter 3: Has the Post-Communist Transition Been Completed?: Economic Perspective
• Part II: Post-Communist Transition and Identity-Building: View from “Within”
• Chapter 4: Societies in Post-Communist Transition: Polish and Hungarian Experience
• Chapter 5: Exceptional but Different: Navigating Transition in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
• Chapter 6: The Czech Republic and Slovakia: Changing Perception of the European Integration since 1989
• Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Post-Communist Nation-Building in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine
• Chapter 8: Thirty Years after Communism: Bulgaria and Romania’s Experience
• Part III: Post-Communist Transition from “Outside”: Neighbors’ View
• Chapter 9: Democratic Transition, Europeanization, and Other Metamorphoses of Central and Eastern Europe: An EU Member State-Building Perspective1
• Chapter 10: From “Well-Understood Self-Interest” to Conflicts of Competence: German Consulting Assistance in Central and Eastern Europe
• Chapter 11: From High Hopes to Mundane Reality: Swedish Perspectives on Post-Communist Europe Thirty Years On
• Chapter 12: Institutionally Embedded: Italy’s Response to Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe
• Chapter 13: “A Successful Partnership Marred by Brexit?”: Britain and Central and Eastern Europe Post-1989
• Chapter 14: Russia and Central and Eastern Europe since 1992
• Part IV: Post-Communist Transition from “Outside”: Global View
• Chapter 15: Post-Communist Transition from Japan: How Beneficiaries Became Partners
• Chapter 16: China’s Views on the Post-Communist Transitions of the Central and Eastern European Countries
• Chapter 17: Middle East, North Africa, and Post-Communist Transition: From Soviet Clientelism to Restoration of Russia’s Powe 
• Index
• About the Contributors