Post-Communism

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Post-Communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transition in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, usually transforming into a free market capitalist and globalized economy.

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[edit] Etymological caveat

As in the case of the term "communist state", it should be noted that "post-communism" is completely inaccurate if we use the original definition of communism (the one given by the communists themselves). None of the so-called "communist states" ever claimed to actually have a communist system, and therefore, technically, there is no such thing as "post-communism". However, those states were usually called "communist" in the West, because their ruling parties generally used the name "Communist Party of [country]", and it is in this context that the term post-communism must be understood.

See also: Definition of a "Communist state"

[edit] Politics

The policies of most Communist Parties in both Eastern and Western Europe had been governed by the example of the Soviet Union. In most of the countries in Eastern Europe, following the fall of communist-led governments in 1989, the Communist Party generally split in two factions: a reformist Social Democratic party and a new Communist Party. Without exception, the newly created Social Democratic parties were vastly larger and more powerful than the remaining Communist Parties.

The ex-communist social democrats gained increasing popularity when the transition to capitalism began to cause economic problems such as poverty and unemployment. All of them won national elections in their respective countries at least once in the past 15 years. However, their voters, who were certainly expecting left-wing policies, were very disappointed: nearly all the ex-communist "social democrats" followed a highly capitalist, neoliberal policy while in power. As a result, many disillusioned left-wing voters have turned to the remaining Communist Parties in recent years.

In western Europe, many of the self-styled communist political parties reacted by changing their policies to a more moderate and less radical course. In countries such as Italy and Germany, post-communism is marked by the increased influence of their existing Social Democrats. The anti-Soviet communist parties in western Europe (for example the Trotskyist parties), who felt that the fall of the Soviet Union vindicated their views and predictions, didn't particularly prosper from it - in fact, some of them became less radical as well.

[edit] Economy

Several communist states had undergone economic reforms from a command economy towards a more market-oriented economy in the 1980s. The post-communist economic transition was much more abrupt and aimed at creating fully capitalist economies.

In most places, this process was successful, but at the cost of a highly negative impact on the population. Standards of living registered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s, and only started growing again during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some countries continue to have standards of living below their 1989 level even today (e.g. Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova), while others have managed to recover and passed above that threshold (e.g. Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary). Yet others, namely the Baltic states, have gone through a period of economic boom in the 2000s after recovering throughout the late 1990s (see Baltic Tiger).

Today, most post-communist countries in Europe are generally seen to have mixed economies, although it is often argued that some (such as Romania, Slovakia and Estonia, with their flat tax rates) are actually more capitalist than Western Europe.

Some of the keywords of post-communism are:

[edit] See also

This entry is related to, but not included in the Political ideologies series or one of its sub-series. Other related articles can be found at the Politics Portal.

[edit] External links

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