Dissidents, Experts, Technocrats: Intellectual Roots of Post-Socialism in East Central Europe, 1969–2014

Annotation

Course title:

Dissidents, Experts, Technocrats: Intellectual Roots of Post-Socialism in East Central Europe, 1969-2014

Faculty:

Michal Kopeček (Institute of Czech History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)

Time and Location

Wed. 12:30-14:05, room No. 200, Faculty of Arts, Nám. J. Palacha 1

Course description:

What happened with the so-called democratic dissidence in East Central Europe after 1989? How come that the democratic revolutions of 1989 almost entirely short of liberal ideologues become, in the course of a few months, "(neo-)liberal revolutions"? What was the antipolitical politics or radical reformism in the 1980s and what does it mean today? To what extent did the internal rift within the democratic opposition before 1989 influence the long-term controversy about the politics of memory and the so-called coming to terms with the communist past in the new born democracies in East Central Europe after 1989?

The dissidence and the broader anticommunist opposition represent an important political mythos for the Czech Republic and several neighboring countries in East Central Europe. Its legacy has left an important imprint on the political cultures of the countries in the region. So did, however, also the thought and activities of the ‚grey-zone‘ experts and technocrats, economists, lawyers, managers who became the leading figures of the post-socialsit transformation.

The course aims to provide students with the most important results of the hitherto research in this field of contemporary history and critically scrutinize the intellectual roots of post-socialism. The course is intended for Erasmus students as well as students of Czech study programs esp. in history, political science and philosophy.

The classes shall usually consist of an hour lecture followed by a seminar discussion on the compulsory reading. The evaluation shall be based on in-class participation and discussion 25%, in-class presentation 25%, and final research paper + its "defense" 50%.

Syllabus

I. Introduction: Opposition, Dissidence, Expert Cultures: Conceptualizations and Interpretations of Late Socialism and Democratic Revolutions of 1989.

II. From the Prague Spring to Helsinki: Consolidation Regimes, International Politics of Human Rights

III. Oppositional Strategies I: Dissident Legalism vs. Socialist Legalism

IV. Towards Lawful Revolution: Socialist Rechtsstaat vs. Liberal Rule of Law

V. Oppositional Strategies II: From Marxist Revisionism to New Evolutionism

VI. Oppositional Strategies III: Self-Organizing Society, Post-Totalitarian Order and Life in Truth

VII. Change of the Frame: Solidarity as Social Movement, Political Opposition, and National Liberation Resistance

VIII. How to Run Authoritarian Socialist State: Late Socialist Disciplines of Governance

IX. Towards Democratic Revolution: the Return of the ‘Political’ in the Second Half of the 1980s

X. Human Right Facing a National Past: Critical Debates on Recent History, Revival of National Political Traditions, Formulating Civic Patriotism in the 1970s and the 1980s

XI. Politics of Memory in the 1980s Opposition: Mythos of Central Europe, Politics of "White Spots"

XII. Towards National Revolution: National Reconciliation, National Interest, Back to Europe

XIII. Towards Anti-Totalitarian Revolution: Liberal Anti-totalitarianism, Lustrations, Institute of National Memory

Reference Literature:

Paul D. Aligica - Anthony J. Evans, 2009, The Neoliberal Revolution in Eastern Europe: Economic Ideas in the Transition from Communism, Northampton, MA

Stefan Auer, Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe. London: Routledge 2004

Johanna K. Bockman, 2011: Markets in the Name of Socialism: Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism, Stanford, CA

Ivan T. Berend, Central and Eastern Europe, 1944-1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996

Jonathan Bolton: Worlds of Dissent: Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 2012

Barbara J. Falk, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe. Budapest-New York : CEU Press 2003

András Bozóki, 1999: Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe. Budapest - New York

András Bozóki (ed.), 2002: The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy. Budapest-New York

Gil Eyal, 2003: The Origins of Postcommunist Elites: From Prague Spring to the Breakup of Czechoslovakia, Minneapolis.

Gil Eyal - Iván Szelényi - Eleanor Townsley 1998: Making Capitalism without capitalists: Class Formation and Elite Struggles in Post -communist Central Europe, London

Roman Frydman - Kenneth Murphy - Andrzej Rapaczyński 1998: Capitalism with a Comrade's Face: Studies in the postcommunist transition. Budapest - New York

Seán Hanley, 2008: The new right in the new Europe: Czech transformation and right-wing politics, 1989-2006, London

David Harvey, 2005: A brief history of neoliberalism, Oxford

Pedraig Kenney, A Carnival of Revolution. Central Europe 1989. Princeton: Princeton UP 2002

Ansgar Klein, Der Diskurz der Zivilgesellschaft, Opladen : Leske & Buderich 2001

János M. Kovács - Violetta Zentai, 2013: Capitalism from Outside? Economic Cultures in Eastern Europe after 1989, Budapest-New York

David Lane - Martin Myant, 2007: Varieties of Capitalism in Post-Communist Countries. Basingstoke

Martin Myant, 2003: The Rise and Fall of Czech Capitalism. Cheltenham

Martin Myant, Jan Drahokoupil, 2013: Tranzitivní ekonomiky (Transitive economies), Praha

David Ost, 2005, The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Post-Communist Europe, Ithaca and London

Joseph Rothschild, Return to Diversity: a Political History of East Central Europe since World War II, New York : Oxford University Press, 2000

Jacques Rupnik, The Other Europe. New York 1989

H. Gordon Skilling: Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Columbus : Ohio State UP 1989

Jerzy Szacki, Liberalism After Communism, Budapest - New York : CEU Press 1995

Winfried Thaa, Die Wiedergeburt des Politischen. Zivilgesellschaft und Legitimitätskonflikt in den Revolutionen von 1989. Opladen 1996

Vladimir Tismaneanu, Reinventing Politics. Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel, New York 1992

Vladimir Tismaneanu (ed.), The Revolutions of 1989, London - New York : Routledge 1999

Hans-Jürgen Wagener, 1998: Economic thought in communist and post-communist Europe. London-New York

Biographies

Cyril Bouyeure, L'invention du politique, une biographie d'Adam Michnik, Paris: Noir blanc 2007

Václav Havel, Disturbing the peace: a conversation with Karel Hvížďala, New York : Vintage, 1990

György Konrád, A guest in my own country: a Hungarian life, New York: Other Press, 2007

János Kornai: By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey, Massachusetts, CA: MAT Press 2006