New Conservatives in Russia and East Central Europe

Katharina Bluhm is Professor of Sociology at the Freie Universität, Berlin.Mihai Varga is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität, Berlin.

• 1 Introduction: toward a new illiberal conservatism in Russia and East Central EuropeKatharina Bluhm and Mihai VargaPart I. Genealogies2 Russia’s conservative counter-movement: genesis, actors, and core conceptsKatharina Bluhm3 The universal and the particular in Russian conservatismPaul Robinson4 Against "post-communism": the conservative dawn in HungaryAron Buzogány and Mihai Varga 5 New conservatism in Poland: the discourse coalition around Law and JusticeEwa Dąbrowska6 The national conservative parties in Poland and Hungary and their core supporters compared: values and socio-structural backgroundJochen Roose and Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski7 "Conservative modernization" and the rise of Law and Justice in PolandKrzysztof JasieckiPart II. Translations8 The limits of conservative influence on economic policy in Russia Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov 9 The "Budapest–Warsaw Express": conservatism and the diffusion of economic policies in Poland and Hungary Ewa Dąbrowska, Aron Buzogány, and Mihai Varga 10 Gender in the resurgent Polish conservatismAgnieszka Wierzcholska11 "Traditional values" unleashed: the ultraconservative influence on Russian family policy Katharina Bluhm and Martin Brand12 Religious conservatism in post-Soviet Russia and its relation to politics: empirical findings from ethnographic fieldworkTobias Köllner13 Ready for diffusion? Russia’s "cultural turn" and the post-Soviet spaceSebastian Schiek and Azam Isabaev14 The emergence and propagation of new conservatism in post-communist countries: systematization and outlookKatharina Bluhm and Mihai Varga

New Conservatives is a highly important collection which offers far more than a standard set of well-researched case studies. Its original reframing of illiberal trends in post-Communist Europe as a new conservative challenge, and stress on reflexive actors rooted in the evolving civil and political societies of the region goes a long way to filling the widening gaps in current explanations that have been over-focused on party politics and over-reliant on generic models of a populist surge brought about by economic shocks and flagging Europeanization. - Seán Hanley, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London in The Slavonic and East European ReviewThis excellent study […] focuses on three cases which are rarely combined, i.e. Russia, Poland and Hungary. Comparing them not only allows us to spot their differences and similarities (vide: the great conclusion chapter by the editors) but also enables a deeper understanding of conservatism in the realities of the post-communist East Central Europe. - Alicja Curanović, University of Warsaw in TRAFO – Blog for Transregional ResearchOver the past decade European democratic regimes have begun to take on the features of non-democracies by using legal restrictions on protest and constitutional amendments, refusing to register political parties and restricting referendums. This book focuses on how policymakers responsible for these changes self-legitimize and legitimize political decisions, which makes it a timely, interesting and relevant contribution to studies on illiberal democracies and contemporary political theory. - Joanna Rak, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań in JCMS - Journal of Common Market Studies