Post-communism

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Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies.

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 parties split in two factions: a reformist Social Democratic party and a new, less reform-oriented Communist Party. The newly created Social Democratic parties were generally larger and more powerful than the remaining communist parties; only in Russia, Moldova, and the Czech Republic did the Communist Party remain a significant force.

The ex-communist social democrats gained increasing popularity when the transition to capitalism began to cause economic problems such as poverty and unemployment[citation needed]. Nearly all of them won national elections in their respective countries at least once in the past 15 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 (e.g., the Trotskyist parties), who felt that the fall of the Soviet Union vindicated their views and predictions, did not particularly prosper from it—in fact, some became less radical as well.

Economy

Several communist states had undergone economic reforms from a planned 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.

All the countries concerned have abandoned the traditional tools of communist economic control, and moved more or less successfully toward free market systems.[1] Although some (including Lewis) stress the beneficial effect of multinational investment, the reforms had important negative consequences that are still unfolding.

Average standards of living registered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s in many parts of the former Comecon—most notably in the former Soviet Union—and began to rise again only toward the end of the decade. Some populations are still poorer today than they were in 1989 (e.g., Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia). Others have bounced back considerably beyond that threshold however (e.g., Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia), and some, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, underwent an economic boom (see Baltic Tiger), although all have suffered from the 2009 recession. 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.

Economic trends associated with post-communism include denationalization, hyperinflation, liberalization, neoliberalism, and privatization.

See also

  • Chinese economic reform
  • Eurocommunism
  • History of post-Soviet Russia
  • Soviet Empire
  • The term post-fascism has been inspired by this usage and applied to parties that come from Neo-Fascism but moved towards conservative democratic positions.

References

  1. ↑ A summary of the process, containing both economic analysis and anecdotal case studies, can be found in Charles Paul Lewis's How the East Was Won (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

External links

Internal background
International background
Reforms
Government leaders
Opposition methods
Opposition leaders
Opposition movements
Events by location
Eastern Bloc
Soviet Union
Elsewhere
Individual events
Later events
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