Elements, origins and future of Great Transformations: Eastern Europe and global capitalism

Abstract

This essay analyses the relationship of two ‘Great Transformations’: the first from socialism to capitalism, more specifically in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and the second from regulated to unregulated capitalism in the global economy since the 1980s, with respect to their common origins, elements and social results. Applying Karl Polanyi’s double-movement concept, it is concluded that these two, in essence neoliberal, transformations have led to societies being deeply divided economically, socially and culturally. Moreover, the self-protection of transformation losers is generating adverse political outcomes on a global scale. For both reasons, the outcomes of neoliberal transformations are jeopardising also the viability of the European Union, which was initially built on the basis of a regulated capitalism. The future of the global economy and also of the European Union depends on how the conflicts between the deepening of unregulated globalisation, national sovereignty and democratic politics can be solved. JEL Codes: B25, B52, P17

Five challenges to humanity: Learning from pattern/repeat failures in past disasters?

“…In Australia, the trust in democracy index fell from 78% in 1996 to 40.56% in 2018 (Stoker et al, 2018). In the European Union (EU), the growing dominance of neoliberal policies and their interconnections with EU expansion into Eastern Europe have jeopardised the regulated capitalism that formed its base (Gabrisch, 2020). Growing mistrust in established politics, insecurity and immiseration have fed right-wing nationalism, ethnocentrism/racism and religious extremism in Europe, the US and India, and social control measures by totalitarian regimes like Muslim concentration camps in China (Greitens et al, 2019).…”

Outcomes of Democratic Innovations: Horizontalism as Inclusive Participation Spillover, but Fragile under Hierarchical Attacks

“…Such a train of thought, although relatable to the Eastern Europe experience of mass privatization during democracy transition (Magnin & Nenovsky, 2022;Marandici, 2021;Gabrisch, 2020;Ghodsee, 2019), surprised international audiences accustomed to shape their discontent with current social and economic issues by blaming the institutional state and its enablers. A growing body of research reflects the biased neoliberal framing of private actors as just and competent warriors, politically sanitized, who are fighting the corrupt, incompetent political state.…”

Capitalism after communism: The triumph of neoliberalism, nationalist reaction and waiting for the leftist wave

“…For now, neoliberalism and the accompanying nationalism seem to be the biggest threat to the EU. As Hubert Gabrisch (2020) writes, a lack of financial regulations on cross-border capital flows, a lack of appropriate fiscal risk-sharing instruments at the union level, and a lack of transfer payments contributed to aggravate the severity of the economic downturn in the euro periphery and delayed the recovery of the entire area.…”