Velvet Capitalism and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Recent concerns about the rise of populist movements obfuscate the limits and the contradictions inherent in the concept. The imposition of the liberal framework’s economic policies, institutional designs and ideology across an entire region provides a unique opportunity to show the effects of the European project. This book revisits the embrace of liberal capitalism in post-communist Eastern Europe to show that recent concerns about the rise of populist movements obfuscate the limits and the contradictions inherent in the concept. The imposition of the liberal framework’s economic policies, institutional designs, and ideology across an entire region provides a unique opportunity to show the effects of the European project. Chapter contributors explore how the problems of the framework are most visibly demonstrated in post-communist countries, where the internal tensions of liberal capitalism clash with locally embedded values. Recent research has focused on developments in the region in terms of how much the respective countries have strayed from liberal standards. This book replaces this discourse with a more profound and fresh interpretation of regional developments by exposing some of the underlying dominant ideas as ill-equipped to grasp the complexity of the current predicament. Bridging economy, politics, and culture this interdisciplinary study will be of particular interest to scholars and students of political philosophy, European law, international relations, political economy, cultural studies, history, memory, and identity.