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Rupnik (2007, 26) resümiert das folgendermaßen: „Der Erfolg der neuen Eliten, die sich an die Spitze der Abkehr vom Kommunismus setzten, beruht auf der Konsolidierung demokratischer Institutionen ohne Teilhabe und auf der Herstellung eines inhaltlichen Konsenses auf Kosten des politischen Prozesses.“ Demokratische Institutionen ohne Teilhabe und Konsens, ohne einen politischen Prozess, sind die Schlüsselwörter der neuen ideologischen Ausrichtung im Osten Europas.
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The formation of nationalism was optimally suited to the Washington Consensus, which had already had disastrous impacts in Latin American countries in the 1980s. The situation in Eastern Europe is by no means to be regarded solely as an Eastern European situation. In this respect, we find ourselves on a world stage as well. The Washington Consensus includes macro-economic stabilization, a liberalization of the financial markets and the modernization of outmoded industry. Despite the loudly asserted ousting of the state and its institutions, what was intended was, first and foremost, to convert it. As far as the modernization of industry is concerned, this was to be carried out solely through privatization – which in many cases was understood by the buyer to mean nothing other than getting rid of unnecessary competition. Next to private property, privatization is the second key word in the process of upheaval in the East and was used almost synonymously with “democratization”. When, in addition to democracy, human rights, the protection of minorities or civil society were also introduced, these buzz words served and still serve to demand and promote privatization in the form of increasing private property. Neoliberalism came from the outside and nationalism from the inside for the purpose of a neoliberal restoration of capitalism. With the integration of the majority of these states into the European Union, it seems that this endeavor has been successful. Despite repeated expressions of distaste on the part of the responsible intellectual servants, it was evident during the accession negotiations at the latest that nationalism was quite suitable for the EU, for example. One after another the candidates signed the acquis communautaire, and it did not occur to anyone that proceeding collectively against the Brussels commissioners might have turned this ritual of subjugation into real negotiations. How did the transformation occur? It all started with a double shock. On the one hand it was a material shock with a drastic drop in social productivity, which resulted in, among other things, a substantial reduction of wages, an increase in social inequalities, an expansion of poverty and unemployment, and a destruction of existing property relations. This was exacerbated by the deterioration of health services, education, in the area of women’s rights and, not least of all, the lower life expectancy of people, which was reduced by an average of ten years. On the
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