1989 and the Politics of Democratic Performativity

• Published in: International journal of politics, culture, and society Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 263 - 272
• Main Author: Matynia, Elzbieta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer Science+Business Media 01-09-2009; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Apartheid; Authoritarianism; Carnivals; Central Europe; Civil society; Clinical Psychology; Communism; Democracy; Democratization; Eastern Europe; Freedom; Performative utterances; Performativity; Personality and Social Psychology; Political Change; Political revolutions; Political speeches; Political violence; Politics; Polities; Post-communist societies; Social change; Social Sciences; Sociology; South Africa; Speech acts; Studies; Transition economies; Well-being; Central Europe; Carnival; Citizens; Performativity; Democracy; Communism; Public happiness; Civil society
• ISSN: 0891-4486; 1573-3416
• DOI: 10.1007/s10767-009-9072-x

In light of the fact—despite a widespread impression to the contrary—that the collapse of Communism in the fall of 1989 did not happen overnight, the paper explores the kind of gradual societal work that had led to the emergence of democratic polities in Central Europe but that had generally escaped the notice not only of policy makers and the leaders of the "free world" but also of theorists. The concept and practices of performative democracy as it manifested itself in the period of late Communism (1970s-1989), but also in South Africa at the dusk of apartheid, and the conditions for political performativity, as well as its main features, are then discussed.