What are the sources of illiberal tendencies in central and eastern Europe? Was the “death of liberalism” (The long read, 24 October) caused by the unfulfilled promises of transformation and the forced “modernisation by imitation and integration by assimilation” imposed by the west?
Ivan Krastev and Steven Holmes claim that the rise of rightwing populism in countries such as Poland and Hungary is best explained by post-transformational fatigue and anger, transformed into resistance against a “catching-up with the west” narrative.
While it is true that the tensions between what was promised in 1989 and what was delivered two decades later led to the victories of rightwing populists, the connection between the two is not straightforward, nor is disillusionment with democracy higher in the post-communist context than in other EU countries.
Krastev and Holmes uncritically follow the populists in collapsing the difference between liberal democracy and neoliberalism. We can safely assume that what most Poles hoped for in 1989 was a system akin to the Swedish welfare state in the 1970s, combining individual freedoms with economic opportunities. But what they got was closer to the American model, characterised by inequalityies and the dominance of capital over work.
Secondly, Krastev and Holmes ignore the role of transnational ultraconservative networks in promulgating the vision of the west as in need of mirroring the east. This idea has long been present in the minds of western far-right activists, who see the west as corrupted by the sexual revolution and liberalism.
Ultraconservatives created outposts in countries such as Russia and Poland hoping for more political opportunities in post-transitional contexts. Rightwing populism rises globally, thus we should view the illiberal tendencies in eastern Europe not as peculiarity, but a transnational trend.
Dr Elzbieta Korolczuk
Researcher, the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University
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