Who thought of Europe as a community before its economic integration in 1957? Dina Gusejnova illustrates how a supranational European mentality was forged from depleted imperial identities. In the revolutions of 1917 to 1920, the power of the Hohenzollern, Habsburg and Romanoff dynasties over their subjects expired. Even though Germany lost its credit as a world power twice in that century, in the global cultural memory, the old Germanic families remained associated with the idea of Europe in areas reaching from Mexico to the Baltic region and India. Gusejnova's book sheds light on a group of German-speaking intellectuals of aristocratic origin who became pioneers of Europe's future regeneration. In the minds of transnational elites, the continent's future horizons retained the contours of phantom empires.

European Elites and Ideas of Empire, 1917-1957

Since the collapse of communism in 1989, two dominant political orders have been established in Eastern Europe: nationalist populism and social democracy. This paper argues that the division of Eastern Europe into a nationalist-populist South and a social democratic North is the result of the evolution of two different types of political cultures and political institutions. These two types of political cultures and institutions, which I call “traditional” and “civic,” arose as a result of different historical experiences. The paper argues that traditional political cultures and institutions are the legacies of political subjugation and backward socio-economic conditions, while civic political cultures and institutions arose as a result of greater political autonomy and industrialization. The paper concludes that, by suppressing democratic norms and perpetuating a vast network of patronage, Slovakia's traditional legacy has facilitated the rise of a nationalist-populist regime.

Slovakia and the Triumph of Nationalist Populism

In 1993, Czechoslovakia experienced a two-fold break-up: On January 1, the country disintegrated as a political union, while preserving an economic and monetary union Then, the Czech-Slovak monetary union collapsed on February 8 We analyze the economic background of the two break-ups, and discuss lessons for stability of monetary unions in general We argue that Czechoslovakia fulfilled some of the optimum currency area criteria; however, given the low correlation of permanent shocks, it appears it was relatively less integrated than some other existing unions That, along with low labor mobility and higher concentration of heavy and military industries in Slovakia, made Czechoslovak economy vulnerable to asymmetric economic shocks-such as those induced by the economic transition Furthermore, the Czech-Slovak monetary union was marred by low credibility, lack of political commitment, low exit costs, and the absence of fiscal transfers

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Stability of Monetary Unions: Lessons from the Break-up of Czechoslovakia

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Taming Financiers: The Political Economy Of Exchange Rate Policy In Eastern Europe

Voucher privatisation was designed to effect a rapid transformation of state-owned enterprises into private ownership with as limited state intervention as possible Premised on neo-classical economic theory, the Czech government anticipated new private owners would emerge with greater incentives than the state to undertake restructuring and ensure the efficient operation of these firms However, this thesis argues that for restructuring to occur, formal ownership patterns are less important than an ability to exercise control because of institutional influences The de jure and de facto roles of owners, managers, and labour are discussed, showing how endogenous and exogenous factors affect their ability to dictate and control restructuring outcomes in voucher privatised firms The thesis argues that observed post-privatisation restructuring outcomes cannot be understood without considering the institutional environment within which firms are situated Institutions are conceived to comprise formal, informal and enforcement aspects, but also with a temporal dimension encapsulated by the use of path- dependency and embeddedness The explanatory framework offered here is a modified version of new institutionalism perspectives, termed "embedded institutionalism" Case studies of seven firms privatised by voucher are presented in this study to demonstrate how the interaction of institutional influences, understood through embedded institutionalism, is the most appropriate framework for understanding postprivatisation restructuring processes in post-communist countries This approach provides a synthesis between the theoretical expectations of neo-classical economic theory and the practical outworking of post-privatisation restructuring in Czech firms Voucher privatisation was a novel scheme, and became the central aspect of the Klaus government's economic transformation Important historical and contemporary institutional influences impacted on its design and implementation However, it is argued that understanding privatisation and its effects on restructuring through embedded institutionalism negates the view that a unique Czech way of privatisation exists, and that observed outcomes are simply responses to the surrounding institutional environment

M. K. Dziewanowski

Papers

Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia: The Meaning of Its History