Perspectives on the Revolutions of 1989: Hopes, Disappointments, Legacies

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The revolutions of 1989 promised a ‘new beginning’ not only to liberate Central-Eastern European states from Soviet domination and communism, but also to revive emancipatory energies in the politics of the West. While the revolutions caught political scientists and theorists off guard – and many afterwards dismissed their novelty – 1989 remains an important symbolic turning point in contemporary Europe. Thirty years after these historic events, the anniversary of 1989 has been met with anxiety, disappointment, and disillusionment. Many Central European states, now members of the European Union (EU), suffer from systemic threats of “democratic backsliding,” nationalist revival, and populist capture that threaten to unravel the liberal-democratic hopes of 1989. Far from a peaceful transcendence of Cold War divisions, from the perspective of the present, this anniversary suggests a woefully unfinished project.

This panel revisits the revolutionary and post-revolutionary political development of Central European states in order to shed light on the present malaise. The panelists assess how the differing connotations of 1989—its relation to liberal democracy, constitutionalism, and the global transformations of sovereignty and political economy—have import in 2019. It brings together perspectives from political and constitutional theory, comparative politics, and the history of political thought.

The papers on the panel are unified by their concern that we may be witnessing a great reversal of 1989 in postcommunist Europe involving a return to populist, ethnic conceptions of peoplehood and sovereignty and to illiberal authoritarian structures of governance. This signals a practical political failure, but also a deep forgetting of the ideals that once motivated democratic theory and practice alike. How does the failure of communism relate to enduring contradictions of the nation-state and the return of European nationalism? How does the rise of populist authoritarianism affect the terms of political polarization and the historical relation of Central Europe to the West and to Russia? What is the link between 1989’s movements for liberation and the tense transformations of sovereignty under globalization? How might the revolutionary mobilizations and the rich political philosophies of dissidence inform new insights about the future of sovereignty in a post-national constellation—and the future course of European integration? In revisiting these important critical theoretical perspectives on 1989, the panel tries to carefully rescue those revolutionary political ideas and translate their significance from the immediate context of late communism to the contemporary era of globalization and crisis.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 2: Foundations of Political Theory

Individual Presentations

• From Competition to Polarization: How Populists Change Party Systems and the EU - Milada Anna Vachudova, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Return to Europe: The Constitutional Futures of Existential Revolution - Paul Linden-Retek, Yale University

• The Nation Conquering the State: Illiberal Democracy in Post-Communist Europe - Peter J. Verovšek, University of Sheffield

Chair

• Jeffrey C. Isaac Indiana University, Bloomington

Discussant

• Jeffrey C. Isaac Indiana University, Bloomington