Post-communist Tendencies in Central and Eastern Europe

The communist elites in Central and Eastern Europe anticipated the collapse of the communist system well before others in their countries, and started to prepare themselves with the goal of preserving their privileged position in the society. They developed skills for leading positions in a free economy through training not available to others and became the predominant owners in their national economies through privatisation processes that they controlled. This power basis allowed them to develop a strong political infrastructure, which attracted enough voters that the elites could exert significant influence on national politics and take care of their own interests. In this paper, those political decisions that are exclusively in the interest of these former elites are termed ‘post-communist tendencies’.