Yes we here in America are experiencing the same mafia- kleptocratic morass that we alway accused Soviet dominated states of. Today, in this paper we have, the son-in-laws of the dictators, Trump and Erdogan meeting and making policy. This is not what great states are made of. Crony corruption is why states fail, not because of whatever totalitarian psycho-babel the leader is spewing out for the day.
I hope that Trump because of his lack intelligence and arrogance is the start of a reset in American political and economic life. After he is eliminated, we already know who his fellow traitors are! They have joyously joined him ,the political, business, and social elites on the front pages of our media. We know who you are , and you will not be forgotten.
89
If it has taken very long for Germans and the French to live in decent relationships to one another you had better give the eastern Europeans some time, more time: Hungarians hate Rumanians and vice versa. Hungarians believe with good reason they were the victims of the Versailles Peace. Yugoslavs no longer exist but the same nationalities still hate one another. Slovaks and Hungarians are enemies. Estonians and Latvians are worried about all the Russians in their midst, whether citizens or not. Poles have pretty much become a one-nationality state, but they can always hate the few Jews and Ukrainians in their midst if needed.
28
It has been understood since the founding of this nation that democratic processes can be messy.
But in the end a well structered republic such as ours will always come around to enough of a consensus to move forward.
That should hearten those who are discouraged about how things are going in tthe former communist nations.
But the issue of unconstrained oligarchs and the very quiet but very powerful old wealthy families is a threat that is less prominent here.
8
I rather imagined most Europeans -- most of the world -- thought of America as a mighty bridge across the oceans. A demonstrably reliable structure built over many decades.
Now, the bridge is showing signs of collapse. A few people might scurry over it before it falls into the sea, but most people are unable to trust it any longer.
We need to shore up the bridge. It won't be fast or cheap, but we won't do it fighting each other.
32
Unspeakably bad though it be, the issue is not how the rest of the world - Central Europe or the defeated after WWII or China - may have progressed, it's how fast and how far America has fallen since Trump was sworn in and that, to this very moment, he continues to have an approval rating of 40+% from Americans. See "How (un)popular is Donald Trump?" fivethirtyeight.com
9
What happened to the forgotten two countries of Eastern Europe: the remaining so-called 'Satellite Countries' in the Soviet orbit--Bulgaria and Romania?
Both of these two countries have faced great corruption challenges and besides their membership of the EU have more in common with Ukraine's politics than any of the other 4 satellites featured in this article. One might say that these two have had a "...a success of sorts" but one probably would stress the challenges and difficulties. Both countries are struggling economically, politically, and with the demographic draining of very significant emigration--especially since 2007 when free movement to other EU regions took effect--- that takes away many of the younger generations as they search for better wages. Both populations are aging and this brings more challenges to come. Of course, any repatriated earnings from these emigrants do help specific families.
Populations:
Bulgaria: 1989 8.8 million; 2018 7.0 million
Romania: 1989 23.3 million; 2019: 19.3 million
2
One begins to suspect that continuous bickering is to be expected. How can any society be just for all its members? We are always attempting to suppress conflict--maybe an impossible goal. Is consensus to be expected? Maybe all the fights, conflicts and injuries, and temporary solidarities are what will be a more likely course--given our natures.
3
In 1989 we didn't have Fox News making half of America ignorant. Now we do.
23
Lies and hatred are clearly Trump's calling cards. More disgraceful and depressing than the tactics, though, is the fact they have been successful. Shame on anyone able to place personal gain, job security, a quest for power or even the hatred of those they disagree with above the truth.
13
My recent Peace Corps experience in a post-Soviet republic left me with the impression that it is difficult to replace Soviet bureaucratic and financial systems with more efficient and sensible ones, and that this makes corruption easier. There was a lack of basic business skills like how to hold meetings. I never found out what kinds of manual and computer accounting systems were used at businesses and banks. Officials exploited cumbersome regulations in order to extract bribes.
Countries in Eastern Europe essentially migrated from feudalism to Soviet rule to oligarchy with no chance to become proficient in well-run capitalistic democracy. In contrast, In the free societies of Western Europe and North America, along with the organizational and fiscal infrastructure that keeps these societies running, have been centuries in the making (until voter-complicit corruption gets in the way.)
9
Watching the growing strength of the right wing (and its persistent nestmate, anti-Semitism, of course) even in western Europe, I worry about the future of liberal democracy everywheree.
I'm reading "To Hell and Back" by Ian Kershaw, in which he dissects the collapse of post World War I democracies and the rise of fascism and Naziism leading up to World War II.
Today's similarities, especially in the former East Germany, as well as in Poland and elsewhere keep striking me. People are disillusioned that liberal democracy is not delivering on the lifestyles and security they anticipated. So they are defaulting to the trusty old right wing.
I would ask why so many in Europe see near-fascism as a solution and a defense against immigration and other issues on that right-wing platter, I now understand better halfway through this book.
I rather think there is something in the DNA of a percentage of Europeans that romances fascism and craves authoritarian rule. But then I look at the U.S. --- especially vivid now during the impeachment process ---and recognize how much Trump's style and moves resemble dictators like Mussolini and Franco who emerged after WWI even more than I had realized. We have that same contingent in the U.S. who want a "strongman" authoritarian leader who bends, mocks, or breaks democratic rule as he sees fit. I have little doubt that the dictators of 1930s Europe would recognize and embrace Trump as a brother.
23
@Trista The dictators of the '20s and '30s were dangerous and effective politicians. Trump is merely ridiculous.
3
When I saw the headline about democracy in Central and Eastern Europe together with the quote that "[w]e have advanced to the same kind of mess as everybody else” I assumed that this was an ironic statement about how under Trump and his Republican enablers, democracy in the US has "advanced" [i.e. regressed] to the more primitive level of new, struggling democracies in Europe.
15
In our "democracy" it appears the greed of a few is enough to handcuff the many.
22
Thank you for this excellent, albeit brief, history lesson, especially the timeline and speed with which Eastern and Central Europe welcomed spring. I'm reminded of past visits to Albania, Ethiopia and Benin. Meetings with government officials were solemn affairs, absent of even a glimmer of excitement, or hope, change. As with a recent Times' piece regarding Germany's reunification, we would do well to remember what it took for such historical changes to occur.
5
What Nietsche, a Naumburger and therefore a Central European, might say is what we have here is a transvaluation of values, Nationalism Resurgent.
With due respect to Ms. Smale let us not forget that less than 2% of the Wenceslas crowd were Slovaks. And three years later "Czechoslovakism" was dead and Slovaks had their own nation state.
Whether they're England-first Brexiteers, America-first Trumpists, Law and Justice nationalists in Poland, or Orban supporters in Hungary the people crave the comfort attendant upon membership in a society which recognizes their culture as the locus of the nation's values.
And they will have it.
5
"Yet almost nobody would have believed that credible evidence would emerge that the president of the United States would not only meddle directly in Central and Eastern Europe, but also do so in an apparent quest to bolster his domestic campaign for re-election. That is where we are."
===
I disagree. I believe many people, and many of them well-known businessmen and -women, spoke rather bluntly about Trump, who Trump was, what he represented - essentially, a fraud and a con - and yet, Trump was elected.
So let's not act as if this is not a logical extension of the idiot we elected into office, because it most certainly is.
Trump is dismantling as much "government" qua obstacle to what may either make him money or allow others to make money who will then owe Trump and Family favors and loyalty for decades to come.
You put an elephant in a room, you had better expect a lot of damage, and all those Republicans who did and still stand with him should be held liable for the damage.
45
@DKM -- "that the president of the United States would not only meddle directly in Central and Eastern Europe"
Obama, Dubya, Clinton, Bush 1, and Reagan all did that. The only change with Trump is the allegation of private motive, not what he did. That may matter to us inside the US, but not to those meddled with.
7
@Mark Thomason
Clinton bombed troops who were deliberately killing civilians of different ethnicity.
Trump extorted a government to act against his personal political opponents by withholding military aid to support a struggle against our common enemy.
There's definitely a difference between preventing a civilian massacre and soliciting a bribe.
Trying to say there isn't is typical GOP lies.
14
@Mark Thomason
Personal vs. political, it being questionable notwithstanding.
Trump is all about Trump, which is the issue, really. If it does not benefit him, he doesn't care and will not lift a finger to do it.
5
Oh, we long for the heady days of revolutions against repression, for the establishment of freedom and self-determination, for optimism to prevail. That was us, once upon a time. But as Ben Franklin cautioned when he said we had obtained “A republic, if you can keep it”, the dreams can too easily be squandered as self-determination falls prey to self-dealing and optimism is consumed by darkness. That is us today. And we are no longer the force for good that we once were, or at least that we once believed ourselves to be. Maybe that was too often an illusion, but it is no longer even a pretense.
So now Ben Franklin’s question needs to be asked again. Can we keep it? Can the millions more of us who voted against Trump and the millions more who voted for Democrats than the ironically named Republicans in 2018 save the nation? Or will the peculiarities of the form of government that we’ll-intentioned men fashioned for a different time result in permanent rule by a minority so consumed by denying power to the majority that they destroy the very thing they claim to love - our freedom? Will their fear of the future and their abhorrence of people of different colors and religions and gender and beliefs destroy the future for all? Or will generosity, honesty and hope prevail - for all?
107
@Mike "Will their fear of the future and their abhorrence of people of different colors and religions and gender and beliefs destroy the future for all?" It's this kind of echo chambered broad demonization and over simplified stereotype of voters that helped elect Trump. To be legitimately concerned about lax immigration law enforcement, for instance, is not hatred of people of color. I could go on about your assumptions, but you get the idea.
9
@Keith I realize you ae trying to be reasonable, Keith. Nonetheless, a significant portion of the Trump base fits Mike's description; just as some portion of the left is extreme. Your specific reference to "lax immigration law enforcement" is a good example. No significant majority of the Democratic party wants open borders (or all guns confiscated, or all abortions free on demand, or all sexual preferences to be allowed to force their preferences on children, or all women to be promoted over men, or every crazy "religion" to be fully recognized), but the extremists have educated all of us to respond almost without thinking into extreme positions. There are moderate American positions that relate to these issues that the extreme right & the extreme left are using to tear our country to pieces rather than to look for ways to bring us together.
36
@Mike Iker "So now Ben Franklin’s question needs to be asked again. Can we keep it?" No. We can't. The Americans today are no longer the people of "the heady days of revolutions against repression, for the establishment of freedom and self-determination." During their time the mores of the society was such that John Adams would say "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." No one would mistake today's Americans for John Adams' "moral and religious people."
"Only those who preserve their cultural legacy in the face of outside pressure are considered true heroes." Americans today have severed themselves, on their own accord instead of outside forces, so far apart from the legacy of their forebears who founded this nation that I see little resemblance between them.
I wonder how and how much of the ideas and idealism of the founding fathers, most of them are still excellent by today's standards, are taught in the schools. Yes, the ideas and idealism of the dead white European male, most of whom owned slaves.
7
It is encouraging to hear someone express optimism about the prospects for liberal democracy in Eastern Europe. But I find it a little troubling that no mention is made of the baleful presence and constant corrosive interference of Russia. Putin has the strongest interest in preventing stable, flourishing democracies from arising, because their success will destabilize his own corrupt, feckless, autocratic regime.
The Trump administration is fully simpatico with Putin's efforts in this regard. Again, it's odd that the author cites Trump's "quest to bolster his domestic campaign" by "meddling" in Ukrainian politics, without noting that Trump's efforts here fit hand in glove with Putin's hostile efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Optimism is most welcome when it's consistent with realism.
57
@TMSquared
Hear hear! The author avoided that proximate cause to the east. Land of troll factories and kompromat. I think we know who I mean here.
13
@TMSquared -- "the prospects for liberal democracy in Eastern Europe"
America does not have "liberal democracy" and never has. That is limited to some parts of Western Europe, Australia and NZ, and maybe Japan.
5
Havel always would say that it is one of the tragedies of this society to expect salvation — or damnation — to come from the outside and save us,” Mr. Zantovsky said. “He would say that it’s our job to do that. And we can certainly do it.”
The truth in a nutshell from a great human being.
11
Nobody should expect utopia. In fact the reason for the horrors that devastated Eastern Europe for seventy years was the desire for utopia. Socialism promised equality and prosperity in exchange for economic and intellectual freedom and delivered neither. The corruption that is eagling alive Ukraine and Central Asian countries is the heritage of socialism. The fact that so many other former vassals of the USSR have become vibrant capitalist democracies is an amazing testimony to the strength of the human spirit. Of course, populist and authoritarian tendencies surface in countries like Hungary and Poland as a reaction to their history and are encouraged by Russia that is still dreaming of resurrecting “the evil empire”. It won’t happen, though. One thing we know about history is that it cannot be turned back. Socialist utopia is dead - and good riddance.
9
Veritas vincit, is the motto of the Czech(osSlovak) President - and it was Masaryk, who stated it, first.
In US, the Franklins, Jeffersons, Adams, etc, wrote that "We hold these truths to be self evident . . ."
Thank you to all persons who report, on such matters. And, thank you Ms. Smale.
3
Maybe it’s time for a new “ Radio Free Europe“.
It could be produced in Ukraine by Ukrainians and aimed at Hungary and the other states that need a democracy reboot.
5
@RjW We could use some small-d democracy radio programming right here in the US.
3
In the fall of 1989 the Dalai Lama Of Tibet was announced as the Nobel Peace Laureate. He stood in prayer at the Berlin Wall on his way to Oslo.
5
After reading the article on Trump's family running our foreign policy, I needed this article to get through the day.
6
That is one of Trump's many problems: his dislike, ignorance and disregard of rules includes the rule of law.
His assault on Free Press for his own personal political gains undermines the very freedoms America used to sell to the world.
His phone call to Ukraine, (and the months-long political machinations leading up to it), tarnish America as a brand, sinking it to cheap-political bribery/extortion that America was supposed to be rescuing the rest of the world from.
His "take no prisoners" scorched-earth politics will leave our country less for it and Trump could care less - He and his children has used the office of President as a business ploy and financially, they couldn't be doing better, opening hotels and other properties across the globe.
To confuse matters, they tried to manufacture a red-herring nothing-cake pointing the finger at Biden's son?!
All while their hands are still solidly stuck in the cookie jar...
.
9
My European branch of family lives in Central Europe.
If there is a truly meaningless term bandied around by Western reporters in regard to ex Eastern Block countries it is the “ nationalist” moniker.
Nationalist in countries with cca 5-10 million inhabitants whose history is a litany of occupation or domination has a different meaning than in Germany or Russia.
Reaction to Markell attempts to impose immigration policies on countries Germans tried to absorb previously into the 3rd Reich cannot be seen in terms of race and Xenophobia. Big country’s nationalism is a weapon while for the little guys it is a bare survival technique.
Different animal to a Hungarian or Czech than to German or Russian.
13
Re ‘We Have Advanced to the Same Kind of Mess as Everybody Else’
While a bit of an equivalency, it’s somewhat true.
The cause however emanates from Russia as it valiantly attempts to regain its former empire of influence. Putin learned well. He had the successful disinformation campaigns of both Stalin and Hitler to study, and did.
7
Democracy can't process complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
Capitalism can't, socialism, religion, legal & monetary code can't either.
There is no hope due to the emergent & dominant phenomenon of our era: exponentially accelerating complexity.
Code & Complexity — A Fundamental Consequence
Complexity increases weaken the efficacy of code, whether genetic, legal, monetary, language, religious, software, etc.
By way of our unprecedented numbers, powers and concomitant reach, we've generated environs / relationships to complex for us to process.
Code Fail
We're not coded — biologically or culturally — to process complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
We're coded for relationship interface with local environs, primarily in a short-term manner with mostly linear dynamics.
Our biological and cultural coding structures do not match, nor can they support, the emerging complexity.
eg
Fundamentally, that's why a hard, micro-plastic rain is gonna fall... & has, repeatedly.
This sci-fi perversion is but another symptom of the Emergent Complexity Apocalypse.
Or:
“If there is a message in this book it is that we are not yet sufficiently intelligent to control or regulate ourselves or the Earth.” James Lovelock — A Rough Ride to the Future
3
The one thing you can say for the Communists, they knew what they wanted to do. Their ideas were not feasible, but they had a very specific program.
Now what do we do? With all this advanced technology, how should society be organized? Nobody knows, although everyone has an opinion.
6
@Jonathan "Nobody knows, although everyone has an opinion." And many consider themselves "informed voters."
By the end of the 19th century it was recognized that it would no longer be possible to have polymath like Thomas Jefferson because things and the world had become so complicated. Nowadays when most societal problems or issues are so complicated that even experts cannot agree on the causes let alone a solution yet many people think by reading news papers or listening to news programs they can become well informed enough to make a judgement on those issues.
2
At the time of Vaclav Havel, America thought it would become the leader of a free world that would include the newly liberated countries of Eastern Europe. Hallelujah.
Turned out to be a pipe dream. We still call the President of the United States the leader of the Free World, but anyone paying attention knows this is a delusion. We are tossing aside both the reality and the claims of democracy in favor of a highly partisan nastiness between two pro-capitalist parties, whose mantra is the pursuit of self interest by everyone. We are handing our democracy over to the billionaires, and the billionaires speak as though they were oracles with a divine right to hold power over the rest of us.
Fewer Americans bother to vote because more Americans understand that the choices on the ballots have been manipulated by the monied interests. We have lost the right to pontificate about freedom and democracy to others. We are falling into bitterness and despair, yet we still hear official voices blathering on about the sanctity of our democratic freedom, even as the freedoms are showing signs of rigor mortis.
19
1989 is the year that the United States of America began its steeper decline into vulture capitalism, turning its back on those recently free countries who needed so much guidance and help in rooting their democracies, including Russia. OUR failure to support them is why the extreme right has begun to take over the governments on both sides. Our governing oligarchs just couldn't make enough money, while ignoring the fragility of democracy, and the needs of the people, around the world. I miss those heady days, that disappeared so quickly into a quagmire of opportunism, for the few. Yeah, now we're in the same mess as everybody else.
11
There are a few important points of note regarding Hungary; despite accusations that Hungary's PM has stated he favors illiberal policies, much of this is rhetoric as the countries EU votes have not reflected some kind of consistent extremist stance. They are actually rather cooperative with the rest of the EU.
Note that the country just had democratic municipal elections and there were no allegations of corruption or vote fixing - the opposition gained ground. Previous reports were that this was not possible, since Fidesz had rigged the party system to control elections. This media paranoia turned out to be misplaced as opposition candidates worked together, and gained major ground, for example winning the mayoral posts of Budapest and other major cities.
Democracy is alive and well and functioning in Hungary, and the country should not have to apologize for not perfectly conforming to French or German visions of Democracy. The revulsion to communism does explain some of the disdain towards democratic socialism, but this should not be confused with a dislike of democracy.
11
What a lovely article. I enjoyed reading it.
8
i came here with the expectation -- a factual expectation, mind you, based on the facts on the ground -- that this article would say that the american people at this moment in history have to turn out in the streets and march for their democracy in the same way that those middle european countries had to fight for freedom from soviet oppression.
but, alas, you mean those middle european countries, like us, are "slipping back according to some criteria of freedom, and tolerance, and democracy."
my question is: are we becoming more like them, struggling to break free of unjust power, or are they becoming more like us, trammeled by superstition and corrpution?
sure, i like young people as a "shining light of hope." i also like them as comely servers at my dinner table. but i ardently deny that young people are the reservoir of "traditional values" -- quite the contrary.
i was young once, and i'm actually counting on the young today to kick tradition to the curb and get us the heck moving in a new and very nontraditional direction.
12
When in Prague a year ago discussing political life with local elected and activists I felt the country should have a mandatory high school course in democracy, civics, civil society, transparency, anti-corruption, the purpose and value of NGO’s and a free press....
Naturally I reflected that no doubt the United States— with its vast regional differences, immigrant history and present, various languages and cultures, and current fractured press and social-media construction of reality—needs that even more.
42
Democracy is not the normal human condition. It takes a lot of work, compromise and you have to undo the human tendency to be tribal and find differences, not things that unite. Our own democracy, that we are so proud of, and rightfully so has not and is not a smooth running machine. Disenfranchising voters is often a lot easier than appealing to them. Democracy also assumes the citizenry is educated in general and on the issues, so if your education system is falling apart or people get their info, as they do now, from opinions on the internet, people aren't going to make decisions based on reality. Eastern Europe like much of Europe has only slowly advanced from the backwardness and tribalism of the past. They're trying, we need help and we need to help them. Secular democracy will always be an iffy proposition but as Churchill said, "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others".
68
@Al "Democracy is not the normal human condition." True. Because the average, the majority, people are only fit to be subjects of a ruling power. That is why historically the practice of democracy if existed at all occurred among elites, not masses. Unless people actually put in practice their rights and responsibilities in the maintenance of a democracy or have a strong desire in becoming so no amount of tweaking of the political system will ever make a democratic system work.
"Disenfranchising voters is often a lot easier than appealing to them." This only illustrates my point that the mass is not fit for democracy. During the founding of this nation there were fierce debates among the Founding Fathers because they had strong conviction of what was right /wrong and what was good/bad. Their interest was not just to woo voters so they could get elected. Why should people, who cannot think on their own and can be disenfranchised or wooed by politicians, think they are qualified to cast vote on issues that affects not just themselves but others as well?
"Democracy also assumes the citizenry is educated in general and on the issues..." That's another fallacy of many people's idea about the democratic practice adopted by the Founding Fathers. The only sure thing the democratic practice would bring is that the government would govern by the consent of the governed. It gives no guarantee concerning the goodness or effectiveness of the government.
3
@Show-Hong Duh
I hear you but there is hope. First, an educated, critically thinking citizenry while never completely achievable, is the goal. It's way better for society over all as well. Second, look at Hong Kong. They are not free, but they have a relatively educated, unified by language and culture citizenry and have tasted freedom and self determination and are fighting for democracy. We need to support them. A free, democratic china could move the world.
7
Lovely, Alison. Thank you for this whiff of optimism. I would only add Ukraine’s overwhelming vote this spring against corruption and for integration with Europe.
And amazingly, despite Russia’s continued transgression, Ukrainian nationalist candidates scored in the low single digits. More reason for hope.
26
Ms. Smale is quite a bit more optimistic than I am. It's extremely good that many people in various countries are pushing back against corruption and loss of democratic rights, but the corruptors and anti-democrats are pushing back against the those pushing back. This is not what business as usual is supposed to look like.
13
And then there is Hungary which is insitutionalizing an oligarchy, eliminating freedoms and.instituting government controls on the press and the economy all while whipping up nationalistic fervor.
36
The main difference between the relatively successful post-Soviet states like Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia, and unsuccessful ones like Ukraine and the Central Asian ones (which are poorer and/or more authoritarian than they were in 1989), seems to be that the successful ones joined the European Union and thus enjoyed prosperity from free trade and open borders with wealthier countries in Western Europe. The EU is the MVP here.
57
@HO, this vastly oversimplifies Eastern Europe, even allowing that eventual EU membership was important. First and foremost, East Germany was absorbed into West Germany and had a completely different transition to those experienced by the rest, and its “success” will be judged only with the passage of time and the interpretation of German historians. And Ukraine really cannot be compared to Poland, Hungary and Czech, inasmuch as its constitutional position within the USSR and its method of privatisation was starkly different to the others.
26
@Mike Melnick - All very good points. You’ve further clarified and strengthened an important principal that is frequently lost: politics (and many other things) are complicated, frequently have their roots in long term historical patterns, and may not lend themselves to the simplified “PC” analysis of commentators trying (as is the case here) to buttress a point of view.
11
@HO No. The main difference is not about the EU membership. The difference is that Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia are truly Europeans. The people of these countries played a role in the European culture and history no less than the people from the western part of Europe. The MVP here is the legacy of their heritage. Vaclav Havel is a product of Czech heritage; EU cannot claim any credit on him.
5