Conclusions: Post-communism, Neoliberalism, and Populism in the Semi-Periphery

The wave of revolution in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that began in 1989 resulted in the rejection of actually existing socialism, widely perceived as oppressive, and its replacement with neoliberalism. Despite democratic rhetoric, in matters of political decision making, neoliberalism has been decidedly undemocratic relying on “experts” implementing the “objective laws of economics.” On the wave of democratisation, the neoliberal ideology supported by a relatively small percentage of society became hegemonic. Although the sense of democratisation was widespread, law-making was not based on the realisation of social preferences. On the contrary, it was legislative processes that shaped the society's axiological preferences. The neoliberal bias concerned not only economic policy and legislation, but also judicial decisions. The CEE variant of conservative-social populism can be described as a reaction to the neoliberal hegemony but it must be kept in mind that the semi-peripheral CEE region remains different from the West on various accounts. The problems here are sometimes rooted in Western concepts, (failed) legal transplants, and local reflections of Western disputes. However, even if they are imported, they take very specific forms that require both specific tests and diagnoses as well as original, region-specific solutions.