A case for liberal democratic nationalism?
Viewed from today’s perspective, it seems clear that liberalism and nationalism are enemies. But that was not always the case. As recently as 1989, liberalism and nationalism were allies in… Read more »
Search Results for: Krastev Holmes
What went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe? A case for ‘pessoptimism’
There’s has been extensive and ongoing debate about “what went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe” and what explains its various forms of illiberalism and democratic decline. A variety of,… Read more »
Communism’s Shadow: How post-1989 liberal dream became illiberal nightmare
Central and Eastern Europe’s transition to democracy has not been smooth. But there are grounds for hope, notes Alison Smale. What would Vaclav Havel have made of post-1989 developments? she asked… Read more »
Europe 1989-2019: Lessons learned?
In Samuel Huntington’s 1991 article on “Democracy’s Third Wave,” he argued that democratic declines are characterized by social and political polarization; the exclusion of populist and leftist movements by the… Read more »
1989: ‘Ideological lie’ exposed in democracy’s paradoxical moment
No empire in history has disintegrated as quickly or as bloodlessly as the Soviet one, in the remarkable year that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989…. Read more »
Democracy under threat in post-Wall Europe: Spirit of 1989 fighting back
The west’s mistake after 1989 was not that we celebrated what happened in central Europe – and subsequently in the Baltic republics and the former Soviet Union – as a… Read more »
The other ‘God That Failed’? The triumph and tragedy of 1989
“Always prepared!” For decades, it was a catchphrase of the Pioneers, an outdoorsy youth group that was a hallmark of communist indoctrination efforts targeting schoolchildren throughout the U.S.S.R. and its… Read more »
How to re-ignite democracy: Recovering the promise of 1989
After communism fell, the promises of western liberalism to transform central and eastern Europe were never fully realized – and now we are seeing the backlash, argue Ivan Krastev and Stephen… Read more »
Post Wall, Post Square: 1989 – The Light that Failed?
Like 1776, 1789 and 1917, the year 1989 was one of those rare moments that mark a decisive turning point in human history. So, at least, it seemed at the… Read more »
CEE illiberalism a corrective to damaging ‘victorious West’ myth?
For countries emerging from communism, the post-1989 imperative to ‘be like the West’ has generated discontent and even a ‘return of the repressed’, as the region feels old nationalist stirrings… Read more »