The International Political Economy
of Transition
This book explores how Eastern Europe’s post-communist transition can only be
understood as part of a broader interrogation of neoliberal hegemony in the global
political economy, and provides a detailed historical account of the emergence of
neoliberalism in Eastern Central Europe.
Adopting an innovative Gramscian approach to post-communist transition, this book
charts the rise to hegemony of neoliberal social forces. Using transition in Poland as a
starting point, the author traces how particular social forces most intimately associated
with transnational capital successful in the struggle over competing reform strategies.
Transition is broken down into three stages; the "first wave" illustrates how
the rise of particular social forces shaped by global change gave rise to a neoliberal
strategy of capitalism from the 1970s. It goes on to show how the political economy of
Europeanization, associated with EU enlargement instilled a "second wave" of
neoliberalisation. Finally, exploring recent populist and left wing alternatives in the
context of the current financial crisis, the book outlines how counter-hegemonic struggle
might oppose a "third wave" neoliberalisation.
The International Political Economy of Transition will be of interest to
students and scholars of international political economy, post-communist studies and
European politics
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Theorising the political economy of post-communism: From transition to
Europeanisation
3. The Polish political economy in a period of global structural change 4.
Making capitalism without capitalists? The transnationalisation of Poland
5. EU enlargement and the selective ‘Europeanisation’ of transition
6. Lost in transition? Responses to the transnationalisation of Poland
7. Trojan horse or Trojan donkey? The repercussions of transnationalisation in
Poland and the emerging European political economy
8. Conclusion: Shaping the future of transnationalisation
178 pages, Hardcover