Populism as a Rejection of (Neo-)liberalism

Rise and Resilience of Populism in Eastern Europe

Professor Mitchell Orenstein discusses how Central Europe’s post-communist dependence on foreign capital constrained countries in the region into following (neo)liberal economic policies and how after the global financial crisis, populist parties in the region began to break from the (neo)liberal consensus, “thickening” their populist agenda to include an economic program based on a conservative developmental statism. This particular form of economic nationalism that emphasizes workforce activation, natalism, and sovereignty has also gone hand-in-hand with attempts to attract investments from Eastern authoritarian states, further illustrating the connection between Central Europe's development strategies and the region’s sources of foreign capital. Speaker: Dr. Mitchell A. Orenstein is Professor and Chair of Russian and East European Studies at University of Pennsylvania and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.