Capitalism, Democracy, and War in Central and Eastern Europe in Historical Perspective

The last one hundred years of east central European history represents a fascinating case for students of comparative politics interested in political transitions and regime changes, as well as social and economic transformations and their political consequences. During this period new states emerged, disappeared, and re-emerged in the region. Democratic, fascist, and communist regimes were established and dismantled. Economic systems were destroyed and rebuilt. Countries experienced wars, foreign invasions, revolutions and civil wars, state- and nation-building processes, economic and political crises, rapid social and cultural transformations, and modernization. This course examines critical periods in central and east European history and politics: the emergence and experiences of newly restored independent states in the aftermath of the First World War, the devastations of the Second World War and subsequent imposition of communist regimes, their evolution and their rapid and largely unanticipated collapse in 1989, subsequent transitions to democracy and a market economy, the accession to the European Union (EU) and the recent slowdown in economic reforms, democratic backsliding, the largely unexpected authoritarian turn in some of the new EU member states and Russian invasion of Ukraine. The course is designed to provide a general introduction to central and east European politics; survey existing interpretations of social, political and economic developments in the region; and examine these developments within the framework of the contemporary literature in comparative politics.