Peripheral Liberalism: (Post-)Socialist Estonia as Enduring Hub of Market Thought.

• In Event: Post-Communist Statecraft

Abstract

Questioning notions of an economic transition orchestrated primarily by Western actors, this presentation traces Estonia’s status as a Soviet and post-Soviet hub of market economic thought to exchanges with other socialist polities, especially Hungary. This will be viewed through the lens of “Peripheral Liberalism,” whereby transformative liberal economic ideas were spread throughout the (post-)socialist world via intra-peripheral ties, not solely by connections with the centers of the global economic system, such as Western advisors.

As a laboratory of Soviet economic thought, Estonia’s economists were able to build strong ties with their counterparts in friendly states, especially Hungary. Taking advantage of the perestroika era’s relatively permissive atmosphere, these Estonian scholars and planners were able to put knowledge their economic experimentation in Hungary and elsewhere in the socialist world to work prior to independence, paving the way for unusually radical marketization at home, and the lasting export of liberal market thought prior to and following the state’s return to independence.

Short Bio

Kevin Axe is a Contemporary History PhD candidate at the Free University of Berlin and a researcher in the “Peripheral Liberalism” Junior Research Group within Berlin’s “Contestations of the Liberal Script” (SCRIPTS) Cluster of Excellence. He is currently writing a dissertation entitled “From ‘Model Pupils’ to Model State: Estonian economists and the globalization of the (post)socialist world.” This dissertation uses an economist-centric approach to explore how market economic thought arrived in Soviet Estonia from socialist sources, was localized, then was exported, before and after Estonia's return to independence. Axe holds an MA in Baltic Sea Region Studies from Tartu University and a BA in History and German from Beloit College.

Author

• Kevin Axe, Free University of Berlin