Friday, September 19th, 2014 The Wages of Extrication: Civil Society Strength at Regime Termination and Inequality in Postcommunist Eurasia

Description

This talk continues a line of research that argues that the strength of civil society at the point of extrication from communism is a powerful predictor of how “liberal democratic” post-communist regimes become. This is based on the impact that a mobilized civil society has on the reconfiguration of elites in the initial postcommunist phase and the degree to which the model of accumulation permits concentration of resources in the hands of previous elites on the basis of political power. In cases where civil society was stronger at the moment of extrication the elite was disposed to a more liberal model of capitalism with at least some protection for social welfare. Where civil society was weaker the elite was able to convert political power into concentrated control of economic assets and a more predatory and highly inegalitarian model of political capitalism emerged. This thesis will be tested by examining the impact of civil society strength at the moment of extrication from communism on income equality in the two decades since its collapse.

Professor Bernhard specializes in comparative politics. His interests include democratization, development, comparative historical analysis, and European politics. His main lines of research have included the role of civil society in processes of democratization, the political economy of democratic survival, the politics and ramifications of institutional choice in new democracies, and paths from dictatorship to democracy in late-democratizing European countries. He is currently working on papers on the role of the state in development, the impact of revolution on the state’s war-making capacity, the effect of how democracy is measured on findings in the literature on regimes and conflict, and the legacies of fascism and communism for democratic political systems.