Authoritarian Capitalism in Europe

This chapter presents an overview of illiberal trends that have been gaining ground in Europe ever since the annus mirabilis was over. Then, in 1999–2000 accession to NATO and the European Union seemed to have anchored parliamentary democracy and the social market economy in a solid international institutional setting. Even those who have not had a chance of becoming full members, such as Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, and the western Balkans, were eager for Europeanization, where growing similarity to core democracies and opening up to globalization seemed axiomatic. Reality, however, has turned out to be quite different, with authoritarian tendencies gaining ground—first as temporary, later as trending processes during the 2000s. Our central thesis is that authoritarian forms of capitalism are neither rare nor exceptional in Europe. Meanwhile, a period of globalization is not really favoring this option as the avenue of the future, despite recent advances in this direction in a number of countries outside Europe.