Crossroads After Communism: Neoliberal Legacies in Eastern Europe and Parallel Paths in Latin America

‘A major contribution to the comparative study of postcommunist transitions and their diverging legacies in Eastern Europe. Drawing lessons from the Latin American experience, Binio S. Binev artfully explains how different partisan alignments during decisive periods of market reform in postcommunist Europe produced liberal or illiberal political, economic, and cultural effects over the long term. This masterful work of cross-regional comparative political economy is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the conditions under which the triumph of liberalism in the 1990s spawned the backlash against it in the early twenty-first century.’ Kenneth M. Roberts, Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government, Cornell University

‘This ambitious book explores why neoliberal junctures led to the rise of populism in some countries of Eastern Europe and Latin America but not others. Where the Left promotes neoliberalism in a bait-and-switch maneuver, it destabilizes its traditional bases of support and paves the way for populist rule. Binev’s book strengthens the case for viewing populists as opportunistic forces of reaction.’ Mitchell A. Orenstein, Professor of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania