THE STRANGE DEATH OF THE LIBERAL CONSENSUS

• Published in: Journal of democracy Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 56 - 63
• Main Author: Krastev, Ivan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01-10-2007
• Subjects: Anti-communism; Central banks; Central Eastern Europe; Cultural identity; Democracy; Economic policy; Europe; Liberalism; Nationalism; Neoliberalism; Poland; Political alliances; Political conditions; Political parties; Politics; Populism; Post-communist societies; Postcommunist Societies; Public Opinion; Radicalism; Right Wing Politics; Trust; War
• ISSN: 1045-5736; 1086-3214

Freedom House's new report Nations in Transit 2007 stresses the Polish government's attacks on the independent judiciary and the independent Central Bank and its violation of the rights of sexual minorities.4 Mich-nik sets forth the indictment as follows: [I]n the ministries and state institutions, numerous civil servants have been summarily replaced by unqualified but loyal newcomers. Sociologist David Ost has argued that the emerging class conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe became articulated as conflicts not about interests but about identity, thus fostering an illiberal political culture and the triumph of populist parties.9 In order to prevent anticapitalist mobilization, liberals successfully excluded anticapitalist discourse, but in doing so they opened up space for political mobilization around symbolic and identity issues, thus creating the conditions for their own destruction.