Post communism

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“Post-communism” , often used adjectivally as “post-communist” (from the Latin post for “after”, i.e. something “after communism ”), more rarely also in the variant “post-socialism” or “post-socialist” , is an ambiguous term that is used in media reporting, political debates as well as in scientific discourse. It has several dimensions that can often not be clearly separated from one another:

  • time with respect to the period after the upheavals and revolutions of 1989 and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union ,
  • spatially in relation to the former Eastern Bloc states with previously communist or real socialist systems,
  • factual or personal in relation to the successor parties of the former communist or socialist parties in these states and their members. The term is not associated with a specific political or philosophical ideology (and should not be confused with post-Marxism ); As the successor to the GDR state party SED , the German PDS remained on the left edge of the party spectrum, while the successor parties in other former Eastern Bloc states, such as the SLD or the SDPL in Poland or the Hungarian MSZP , followed the example of social democratic people 's parties such as the SPD or the British Labor party- oriented and shortly after the fall of the Berlin government again.
  • Politically , the term is occasionally used as a catchphrase (“fighting term ”) to emphasize the actual or supposed proximity of political opponents to the earlier regimes, to portray them as opportunists (see “ turning necks ” and similar terms) or to emphasize the credibility of their commitment to doubt liberal democracy , the rule of law and the free market economy; as a self-designation it is accordingly not in use.
  • Culturally , the term occasionally describes a collective or generation-related experience or an unspecific attitude towards life that characterizes societies during or after the system transformation and is characterized by certain phenomena such as mass unemployment or anomie and the associated return of conservatism , nationalism , familialism or re-familyization (relocation of welfare state tasks to the family), authoritarianism or patronage or clientelism .

literature

  • Boris Groys , Anne von der Heiden, Peter Weibel (eds.): Back from the future: Eastern European cultures in the age of post-communism. edition Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-518-12452-8 . (Review on pearl divers)
  • Boris Groys: The Communist Postscript. edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-12403-X .
  • Tanja Bürgel (Ed.): Generations in the upheavals of post-communist societies: Transfer of experience and differences before the generation change in Russia and East Germany. (= SFB-580 messages. 20). University of Jena, Jena 2006. ( full text PDF )
  • Kai-Olaf Lang: Post-communist successor parties in Eastern Central Europe: Prerequisites for success and development dynamics. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8329-3642-6 . ( Abstract )
  • Dittmar Schorkowitz: Post-communism and decreed nationalism. Memory, Violence and Politics of History in the Northern Black Sea Region. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-57610-6 . ( Google Books )
  • Dieter Segert, Richard Stöss , Oskar Niedermayer (eds.): Party systems in post-communist societies in Eastern Europe. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-531-13007-2 . ( Google Books )

Web links