The Legacies of 1989: Myths and Realities of Civil Society

Abstract

The reconstitution of civil society in the postcommunist world is misunderstood. Commonly diagnosed as weak and ineffective, really existing civil societies vary widely across the region. They differ from each other along several dimensions: constitution of public space, organizational composition, patterns of behavior, and normative orientations. Such differences result from dissimilar legacies of communism, diverging patterns of transformation, and different regime types. In Central Europe civil societies are generally as developed as in some countries of the West. In Central Asia incipient civic organizations are constrained in a manner resembling the pre-1989 Eastern Europe. In other parts of the former communist world, associational life has intensified despite many obstacles, but civil societies are politically impotent.

Social Movements Seen as Radical Political Actors: The Case of the Polish Tenants’ Movement

“…The response of civil society to the extensive neoliberal practices and ideas in Poland has been described as ''moderate reformism,'' a type of neoliberal consensus that was shared by civil society along with the country's leading politicians and economists (Ekiert and Kubik 2014). However, more recently, at least since the early 2000s, an increasing number of populist and right-wing mobilizations has been taking place along growing discontent among the population.…”

“…This claim was further articulated in the period after 2011. Some external mechanisms influencing this sharpening of claims in the tenants' movement, or more broadly the Polish housing movement-including tenants, squatters, and other groups disprivileged in the housing sphere-were the financial crisis that deepened the processes of flexibilization and precarization of the labor market and the continued growth of right-wing mobilization and rhetoric in the country (Beissinger and Sasse 2013;Ekiert and Kubik 2014) combined with accelerated re-privatization processes during this period.…”

Intersections. EEJSP_Vol1_No3

“…After 1990, the question of movements in ECE fit into the larger literature on post-socialist transition and democratization. Two main conflicts signaled in the literature were that between democratization and economic austerity (Przeworski, 1991;Ekiert and Kubik;, Greskovits, 1998, and low popular participation vs. the proliferation of civil society organizations (McMahon, 2001;Howard, 2003;Tarrow and Petrova, 2007). In the conceptualization of both conflicts, researchers worked with the assumption that Eastern European societies will develop in a linear scale defined by earlier Western models -or if do not, differences from core models will be described as a backdrop in normal development.…”

Going against institutionalization: New forms of urban activism in Poland

“…The first decade after the fall of state socialism in Poland was characterized by moderate aspirations to reform or oppose the dominant (neoliberal) rhetoric by social movements in the country (Ekiert & Kubik, 2014;Ost, 2000;Polanska, 2016). Although urban activism has been present in the country's past, there has been a clear intensification in the activity of urban social movements in Poland in the 2000s (Domaradzka & Wijkström, 2014;Jacobsson, 2015;Pluciński, 2013).…”