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Post-communism

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This article is about the economic and political transformations that occurred in certain countries as a result of the fall of their communist governments. For the academic study of the contemporary status of these countries, seePostsocialism.For the political philosophy that reinterprets Marxism, seePost-Marxism.

Post-communismis the period of political and economic transformation ortransitioninpost-Soviet statesand other formerlycommunist stateslocated in Central-Eastern Europe and parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, in which new governments aimed to createfree market-orientedcapitalist economies.In 1989–1992,communist partygovernancecollapsedin most communist party-governed states. After severe hardships communist parties retained control inChina,Cuba,Laos,North Korea,andVietnam.SFR Yugoslaviabegan todisintegrate,which plunged the country into a long complexseries of warsbetween ethnic groups and nation-states. Soviet-oriented communist movementscollapsedin countries where they were not in control.[1][2]

Politics

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Further information:History of communism § Contemporary communism (1993–present)

The policies of mostcommunist partiesin both theEasternandWesternBlocs had been governed by the example of theSoviet Union.In most countries in the Eastern Bloc, following theRevolutions of 1989and the fall ofcommunist-led governmentsthat marked the end of theCold War,the communist parties split in two factions: a reformistsocial democraticparty and a new lessreformist-oriented communist party. The newly created social democratic parties were generally larger and more powerful than the remaining communist parties—only inBelarus,Ukraine,Kazakhstan,Moldova,Russia,andTajikistanthe communist parties remained a significant force.[3][4]

In the Western Bloc, many of the self-styled communist parties reacted by changing their policies to a moremoderateand lessradicalcourse. In countries such asJapan,Italyandreunited Germany,post-communism is marked by the increased influence of their existing social democrats. Theanti-Sovietcommunist parties in the Western Bloc (e.g. theTrotskyistparties) who felt that thedissolution of the Soviet Unionvindicated their views andpredictionsdid not particularly prosper from it—in fact, some became less radical as well.

Economy

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Several communist states had undergone economic reforms from acommand economytowards a moremarket-oriented economyin the 1980s, notablyHungary,Poland,BulgariaandYugoslavia.The post-communist economic transition was much more abrupt and aimed at creating fully capitalist economies.[5]

All the countries concerned have abandoned the traditional tools of communist economic control and moved more or less successfully toward free-market systems.[6]Although some, such as Charles Paul Lewis, stress the beneficial effect ofmultinational investment,the reforms also had important negative consequences that are still unfolding. Averagestandards of livingregistered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s in many parts of the formerComecon—most notably in theformer Soviet Union—and began to rise again only toward the end of the decade. Some populations are still considerably worse off today than they were in 1989 (e.g.Moldova,andSerbia). Others have bounced back considerably beyond that threshold (e.g. theCzech Republic,Hungary, and Poland) and some such asEstonia,Latvia,Lithuania(Baltic Tiger), andSlovakiaunderwent an economic boom, although all have suffered from the2009 recession,except for Poland, which was one of two countries (the other wasAlbania) in Europe maintained growth despite the worldwide recession.

Armenia's economy, like that of other former states of Soviet Union, suffered from the consequences of a centrally-planned economy and the collapse of former Soviet trade patterns. Another important aspect for difficulty of standing up after the collapse is that the investment and funding that was coming to Armenian industry fromSoviet Unionhas been gone, leaving only a few large enterprises in operation. Furthermore, the aftereffects of the1988 Armenian earthquakewere still being felt. Despite the fact that a cease-fire has been in place since 1994, the dispute withAzerbaijanoverNagorno-Karabakhhas not been resolved. SinceArmeniawas heavily dependent on outside supplies of energy and most raw materials at that time, the resulting closure of both the Azerbaijani and Turkish borders has devastated the economy. During 1992–1993, the GDP had dropped around 60% from its peak in 1989. Few years after adoption of national currency, thedramin 1993, it experiencedhyperinflation.[7]

As of 2021, most post-communist countries in Europe are generally seen to havemixed economies,although some such as Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia often adopt more traditionally free-market policies, such asflat taxrates, than does the Western Bloc. A fundamental challenge in post-communist economies is that institutional pressures that reflect the logic ofcapitalismanddemocracyare exerted on organizations, includingbusinessfirms andgovernment agencies,that were created under communism and to this day are run bymanagerssocializedin that context, resulting in a great deal of continuing tension in organizations in post-communist states.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^David Priestland,The Red Flag: A History of Communism(Grove, 2009) pp 346–353.
  2. ^Robert Service,Comrades: A World History of Communism(2007) pp. 459–460,
  3. ^David Ost, "The politics of interest in post-communist East Europe."Theory and Society22.4 (1993): 453-485.onlineArchived2021-05-15 at theWayback Machine
  4. ^Gregory Gleason,Markets and politics in Central Asia(Routledge, 2003).
  5. ^Charles King, "Post-Postcommunism: Transition, Comparison, and the End of" Eastern Europe "."World Politics(2000): 143-172.online[dead link]
  6. ^A summary of the process containing both economic analysis and anecdotal case studies can be found in Charles Paul Lewis'sHow the East Was Won(Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
  7. ^Curtis, Glenn (1995).Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: country studies.Washington D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. pp. 1–77.ISBN0844408484.
  8. ^Tilcsik, A. (2010). "From ritual to reality: Demography, ideology, and decoupling in a post-communist government agency".Academy of Management Journal.53(6). 1474–1498.Abstract.

Further reading

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  • Bown, Archie.The Rise and Fall of Communism(2009)
  • Fürst, Juliane, Silvio Pons and Mark Selden, eds. The Cambridge History of Communism (Volume 3): Endgames?.Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present (2017)excerpt
  • Kotkin, Stephen.Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000(2nd ed. 2008)excerpt
  • Pons, Silvio, and Robert Service, eds.A Dictionary of 20th-Century Communism(2010).
  • Priestland, David.The Red Flag: A History of Communism(Grove, 2009).
  • Service, Robert.Comrades: A World History of Communism(2007).
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