In late 1989 and early 1990, the dominant idea was that policymakers in Eastern Europe would be learning from the West. The term “transition” offered an image in which East Europeans were on a road to catching up with Western institutions which had earlier “arrived” at the right answers for the proper models of the relationship between markets and democracies. Twenty five years later, our goal is to consolidate existing research – less about “1989” itself than about the past 25 years of experience with political and economic transformation. To do so, this component of the Harriman Core Project for 2014-15 will focus on how different actors are learning from each other. Who is paying attention to whom? And what new combinations are being cobbled together in this process?
For example, in an important speech in July 2014, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban commended the idea of “illiberal democracy” and pointed to China and Russia as exemplars from which his country had much to learn. In this speech, Orban explicitly problematized the relationship between markets and democracy and challenged the policymaking consensus of the last quarter century. In no place is this challenge more clearly visible than in China. If June 4, 1989 was the day of Solidarity’s electoral triumph against the communist party in Poland, it was also the very same day in which the Chinese leadership crushed the Tiananmen Square protesters. How has China subsequently paid attention to developments in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union? Evidence suggests that China took the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of dissident groups, and internal divisions within the communist parties of the region as a negative model for its own future. While Eastern Europe was importing institutions wholesale, China has invented a hybrid model that we can refer to as “Market Leninism.” This model combines market reforms with one-party control over the army, economic appointments, and ideological doctrine.
If we broaden our vision, we can see other instances of non-violent attempts to overthrow authoritarian regimes via popular uprisings in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine,Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia. From the so-called Colored Revolutions of Eurasia, to the Jasmine Revolutions of North Africa, to the Umbrella Revolution in contemporary Hong Kong, what models of democratic and economic institutions are they paying attention to? And what lessons have authoritarian governments learned? If governments are experimenting with new models, protestors are also inventing new repertoires of resistance and demonstrations. Our goal is to investigate these evolving processes by observing who is paying attention to whom.
David Stark, Director
Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs
Columbia University
Elena Krumova
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harriman Institute
Columbia University