Abstract
This chapter addresses the shift from “non-liberal” communist systems to neoliberalism in a systemic transformation which affected Central Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in the late twentieth century. The main research focus here lies in defining the core elements and determinants of this shift, which originated firstly from the legacy of the communist regime and, secondly, from the paradoxical consequences of simultaneous processes of transformation and Europeanisation at work in the CEECs. The chapter opens with explaining the premises for introducing neoliberalism in CEECs in the first place and then continues with presenting the multi-aspect complexity of transformation and Europeanisation processes. In the case of CEECs, both processes resulted in paradoxes which are listed and explained (those of democracy, State, capitalism, Euroscepticism). The chapter ends with the conclusion that while both transformation and Europeanisation processes lead to unquestionable successes in CEECs countries (by introducing democratic systems and making EU membership possible), having been built on these paradoxical foundations, they also unexpectedly paved the way for a further shift, this time towards a currently overwhelming “illiberalism.”
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Curyło, B. (2022). From “No-Liberalism” to Neoliberalism in Central Eastern Europe of the Late Twentieth Century: A Success Story?. In: Lévy, N., Chommeloux, A., Champroux, N.A., Porion, S., josso, S., Damiens, A. (eds) The Anglo-American Model of Neoliberalism of the 1980s. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12074-9_19
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