Prispevek zavrača optimistična pričakovanja, da bo v primerjavi s prejšnjim stoletjem, v katerem so o ljudeh in njihovih družbah odločali totalitarizmi in avtoritarni voditelji, v 21. stoletju ...nasprotno dokončno zavladala demokracija. Zanje nosi glavno odgovornost poenostavljena modernizacijska paradigma, ki je usodo demokracije povezala z rastjo bruto družbenega proizvoda. Po »tretjem valu« demokratizacije v svetu pred dobrima dvema desetletjema prevladujejo danes pesimistične ocene o njenem »zatonu«, ki pa se ne nanašajo samo na komaj vzpostavljene demokracije, temveč tudi na etablirane demokracije, ki so se še ne tako dolgo ponujale kot vzorne. Vzroki za recesijo demokracije so številni, večina jih je povezana z globalno hegemonijo neoliberalizma, v kateri korporacije, najbogatejši sloj in politika, ki je podrejena interesom finančnega kompleksa, spodjedajo srednji razred in socialno državo ter ju nadomeščajo s socialnodarvinistično zamišljeno tržno družbo. Avtor svoj prispevek sklene z dvema ugotovitvama: prvič, da živimo v vmesnem času, ki ga informira ciklična kriza demokracije; in drugič, da stanje postdemokracije prinaša nove priložnosti in tveganje za teritorialno (nacionalno) in nadnacionalno demokracijo, kar zahteva alternativno teoretično in politično imaginacijo na tem področju družboslovne refleksije.
The article rejects overoptimistic expectations that contrary to the previous century, when totalitarisms and authoritarian leaders decided about the fates of people and societies, the 21
st
century will eventually establish the rule of democracy for good. Main defender of this simplified view belongs to modernization paradigm, which tied democracy to the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). Today, after the "third wave" of democratization in the world more than twenty years ago, we are witnessing rather pessimistic assessments about its "decline", which are not limited only to newly established democracies, but as well to the old ones. There are many reasons for the recession of democracy, most of them are linked to the global hegemony of neoliberalism in which corporations, the rich class and politics, subordinated to the financial complex, ruin both the middle class and welfare state by replacing them with imagined market society based on Social Darwinism. The author concludes his article with two assessments: first, we are leaving in in-between times, which are in-formed by the cyclical crisis of democracy; second, the state of post-democracy brings new opportunities and risks for territorial (national) and supra-national democracy, which requires alternative theoretical and political imagination in this area of reflection in the social sciences.
The year 1989 brought the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It was also the year that the economic theories of Reagan, Thatcher, and the Chicago School achieved ...global dominance. And it was these neoliberal ideas that largely determined the course of the political, economic, and social changes that transformed Europe—both east and west—over the next quarter century. This award-winning book provides the first comprehensive history of post-1989 Europe. Philipp Ther—a firsthand witness to many of the transformations, from Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution to postcommunist Poland and Ukraine—offers a sweeping narrative filled with vivid details and memorable stories. He describes how liberalization, deregulation, and privatization had catastrophic effects on former Soviet Bloc countries. He refutes the idea that this economic "shock therapy" was the basis of later growth, arguing that human capital and the “transformation from below” determined economic success or failure. Most important, he shows how the capitalist West's effort to reshape Eastern Europe in its own likeness ended up reshaping Western Europe as well, in part by accelerating the pace and scope of neoliberal reforms in the West, particularly in reunified Germany. Finally, bringing the story up to the present, Ther compares events in Eastern and Southern Europe leading up to and following the 2008–9 global financial crisis. A compelling and often-surprising account of how the new order of the New Europe was wrought from the chaotic aftermath of the Cold War, this is essential reading for understanding Europe today. Philipp Ther is professor of Central European history and director of the Institute of European History at the University of Vienna.
The paper addresses the notion of public interest in spatial planning, particularly the redefinition of public interest within the context of neoliberal urban politics and planning. It tries to ...demonstrate that instruments of neoliberal urban planning change and reduce the role of public interest. As for the societies that have experienced the so called post-socialist societal transformation, the paper presents the argument that there are strong contradictions between the unitaryconcept of public interest embodied in statutary rules and the appearance of new urban actors and urban developers.
