Ideology and Social Protests in Eastern Europe ― Beyond the Transition's Liberal Consensus

This book argues that the recent political mobilizations in Eastern Europe have been underpinned by a class struggle between a more conservative and a more radical line of contention. The latter line, the book contends, is designed by and for subaltern groups whose anti-systemic programme calls for not just the eradication of corruption, but for more participatory forms of democracy, for social justice, and for freedom from want. The former, on the other hand, is designed by powerful groups of intellectuals, for the middle classes whom the intellectuals see as the historical strata capable of advancing the ‘catch-up’ projects of modernization and Europeanization which they zealously champion. Based on a critical examination of recent political struggles, including a detailed case study of the 2013 protests in Bulgaria which focuses particularly on their internal antagonisms and drawing on the social theories of Antonio Gramsci and Ernst Bloch, the book provides shrewd insights into class antagonisms in political mobilizations, the distortive nature of ideological constructions and utopian longings, and the factors which propel many people to support projects for social change.

Veronika Stoyanova is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Kent and a Master’s degree in Social and Public Communication from the London School of Economics. Stoyanova’s doctoral research focused on Bulgaria’s recent waves of protest mobilisation in the context of the country’s post-socialist ‘transition’ to liberal democracy and market economy. More broadly, her research interests are in theories of ideology and utopia, post-socialist studies, and also critical approaches to racism and marginalisation.