On Baltic Slovenia and Adriatic Lithuania
A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Patterns in Post-Communist Transformation

Zenonas Norkus

Zenonas Norkus is professor at the Department of Sociology, VilniusUniversity, Lithuania

A unique application of social science software to generate typology and ranklist of transition models of twenty-nine countries in Europe and Asia, ranging from Estonia to Vietnam, Norkus provides a highly innovative internationally comparative causal analysis of the variation in political and economic outcomes after the first decade of post-communist transformations, using multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Tosmana programme. The analysis includes a critical revision of received dichotomies (e.g. on gradualism versus “shock therapy”), and contributes to current debates on the varieties of post-communist capitalism.

This conceptual framework is applied in national case studies, searching for reasons behind successes and failures, with special consideration given to the possibility of alternatives to the Lithuanian way, and the challenges of populism in this country’s politics.

Contents

Contents
List of Figures; List of Tables; Introduction; Part I Patterns of Post -Communist Transformation Chapter 1. The Concept of Post-Communist Transformation 1.1. What Was Communism? 1.2. The Concept of the Exit from Communism 1.3. Conceptual Foundations of the Typology of Paths of Post-Communist Transformation Chapter 2. Orientations and Modes of Post-Communist Transformation 2.1. Orientations of the Exit from Communism: Concepts and Cases 2.2. Economic Modes of the Exit from Communism: Concepts and Cases 2.3. Political Modes of the Exit from Communism: Concepts and Cases Chapter 3. Economic and Political Outcomes of Post-Communist Transformation 3.1. Change and Diversity of Capitalism in the Comparative Economic Sociology and Political Economy 3.2. Rational Entrepreneurial Capitalism in a Post-Communist World 3.3. Political Oligarchic and State Capitalism in the Post-Communist World 3.4. Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Their Adjectives: Outcomes of Political Transformation Chapter 4. Pathways and Patterns of Post-Communist Transformation 4.1. Comparative Qualitative Analysis as a Method of Theory Building 4.2. From Empirically Observed to Counterfactual Ways of Post-Communist Transformation 4.3. All Ways of Post-Communist Transformation Part I I . Capitalism and Democracy in Post -Communist Lithuania : Deepening Comparative Contexts Chapter 5. Why Lithuania “Lagged” Behind Estonia? 5.1. A North-South Gap in the Post-Communist Transformation of the Baltic States as a Problem of Explanation 5.2. An Economic Explanation of Lithuania’s Falling Back 5.3. A Political-Economic Explanation: Does the Blame Lay on Lithuanian Ex-Communists? 5.4. A Culturalist Explanation: “Weber’s Thesis” for the Baltic Countries? 5.5. Latvia and Other Difficulties of the Culturalist Explanation of the Estonia’s Success: Towards Resolution Chapter 6. Between Estonia and Slovenia: Post-Communist Capitalism in Lithuania and Its Prospects 6.1. Baltic States and Slovenia as Extremities of Post-Communist Rational Entrepreneurial Capitalism 6.2. Baltic Capitalism(s) – New Liberal Market Economies Between the Core and Periphery? 6.3. Could Lithuania Have Become the “Baltic Slovenia”? 6.4. How Slovenia Could Have Become the “Adriatic Lithuania” Chapter 7. The Presidential Impeachment as the Stress Test of the Liberal Democracy in Lithuania 7.1. Populism and Perils of Semi-Presidentialism in the Baltics and Central Europe 7.2. Paksasgate Story: Staging, Casting, and Plots about Plots
7.3. Did the Successful Impeachment of Rolandas Paksas Save Liberal Democracy in Lithuania from Breakdown? 7.4. Was it All Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing, or Why Impeachment Did Not Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Lithuania? Concluding Clarifications and Invitations References; Name Index; Subject Index

Published by Apostrofa, Vilnius, distributed by CEU Press
375 pages, 16 illustrations (charts, photo etc.), 2012
978-615-5053-50-4
$60.00 / €55.00 / £50.00 cloth