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Czech noncommunist left after 1989 and rethinking of alternatives
Andělová, Kristina ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Pullmann, Michal (referee)
The collapse of the communist regimes came at the time of the overall decline of the Left, both in the West and the East. In the Eastern Bloc, much of the Left's language was disqualified as a result of its association with the former communist regime, the rejection of which formed the basis of post-communist democratic identities. Although the post-communist situation was generally seen as unfavourable for leftist thought, it nevertheless represented a liberation from a regime which, in many respects, supressed leftist criticism. Social changes in 1989, guided by mass peoples' movements, enabled the Left to understand these changes through their own conceptual apparatus and integrate them with their own expectations. The defensive position of the Left and the "liberal consensus" of the nineties led the alternative leftist thought to profile itself as a leftist criticism of liberal democracy. However marginal their political position was, left-wing oriented authors tried to advocate alternative economic and social structures to those of capitalism, rejecting current pro-capitalist values and practices (consumerism, neoliberalism) and rethinking the changes in private ownership, redistribution of wealth and common values. Key words: Left, liberal consensus, 1989, democratic socialism, post-communism
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