The “Triumph of Neoliberalism” Reconsidered: Critical Remarks on Ideas-Centered Analyses of Political and Economic Change in Post-Communism

Abstract

This article offers a critical discussion of a widely popular ideas-centered interpretation of transformative processes in post-communism: the view that during the 1990s, politics in Eastern Europe was completely dominated by a particular ideology, neoliberalism, and hence observable patterns of socioeconomic change are best explained in terms of the impact of a set of ideas disseminated by international financial institutions and eagerly implemented by local elites. More often than not, such ideational analytical accounts rest on simplistic assumptions about elite behavior, demonstrably inaccurate depictions of the actual course of events in various East European countries, and acontextual forms of theorizing. The article concludes with a plea for novel approaches to the study of the role of ideas in post-communist politics, approaches that avoid the risks inherent in efforts to force evidence from the former socialist countries into preexisting “grand narratives” about the historical essence of the contemporary era.