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After the Cold War ended, more than 400 million people found themselves in the transition from state socialism and central planning to liberal democracy (in most cases) and free markets. Residents' evaluations of the transition are sharply divided, echoing the contradictory images presented by different social science disciplines.
Taking Stock of the Shock presents an interdisciplinary view of the transition process. Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell A. Orenstein blend the empirical data with lived experiences to produce a robust picture of who has won and who has lost in the post-socialist system, contextualizing the rise of populism in Eastern Europe.
List of contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Authors' Note on Terminology
- Introduction: Transition from Communism - Qualified Success or Utter Catastrophe?
- Part One: The Economic Evidence
- Chapter One: The Plan for a J-Curve Transition
- Chapter Two: Plan Meets Reality
- Chapter Three: Modifying the Framework
- Chapter Four: Counter-Narratives of Catastrophe
- Part Two: The Demographic Evidence
- Chapter Five: Where Have All the People Gone?
- Chapter Six: The Mortality Crisis
- Chapter Seven: Collapse in Fertility
- Chapter Eight: Outmigration Crisis
- Part Three: The Public Opinion Evidence
- Chapter Nine: Disappointment with Transition
- Chapter Ten: Public Opinion of Winners and Losers
- Chapter Eleven: Evaluations Shift Over Time
- Chapter Twelve: Towards a New Social Contract?
- Part Four: The Ethnographic Evidence
- Chapter Thirteen: Portraits of Desperation
- Chapter Fourteen: Resistance is Futile
- Chapter Fifteen: Return to the Past
- Chapter Sixteen: The Patriotism of Despair
- Conclusion: Towards an Inclusive Prosperity
- Appendix: Data Sources
- Selected Bibliography
About the author
Kristen R. Ghodsee is Professor of Russian and East European Studies and a Member of the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her articles and essays have been translated into over twenty languages and have appeared in publications such as
The New Republic,
The Lancet,
Ms. Magazine,
The Washington Post, and
The New York Times. She is also the author of nine books, most recently:
Second World, Second Sex and
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, which has already had thirteen foreign editions.
Mitchell A. Orenstein is Professor and Chair of Russian and East European Studies and a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the prize-winning author, editor, and co-author of eight books on the social policy and political economy of postcommunist states, including
From Triumph to Crisis,
Privatizing Pensions, and
Roma in an Expanding Europe. He has consulted for the World Bank, USAID, and the
government of Slovakia.
Summary
Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell A. Orenstein blend empirical data with lived experiences to produce a robust picture of who won and who lost in post-communist transition, contextualizing the rise of populism in Eastern Europe.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, more than 400 million people suddenly found themselves in a new reality, a dramatic transition from state socialist and centrally planned workers' states to liberal democracy (in most cases) and free markets. Thirty years later, postsocialist citizens remain sharply divided on the legacies of transition. Was it a success that produced great progress after a short recession, or a socio-economic catastrophe foisted on the East by Western capitalists? Taking Stock of Shock aims to uncover the truth using a unique, interdisciplinary investigation into the social consequences of transition—including the rise of authoritarian populism and xenophobia. Showing that economic, demographic, sociological, political scientific, and ethnographic research produce contradictory results based on different disciplinary methods and data, Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein triangulate the results. They find that both the J-curve model, which anticipates sustained growth after a sharp downturn, and the "disaster capitalism" perspective, which posits that neoliberalism led to devastating outcomes, have significant basis in fact. While substantial percentages of the populations across a variety of postsocialist countries enjoyed remarkable success, prosperity, and progress, many others suffered an unprecedented socio-economic catastrophe. Ghodsee and Orenstein conclude that the promise of transition still remains elusive for many and offer policy ideas for overcoming negative social and political consequences.
Additional text
This book is highly recommendable not only for the richness of data presented but also the provocative analysis, which helps to unsettle self congratulatory accounts of the "triumph of the West." East Europeans do not like inequality and unfairness, and their voices need to be heard.
