Capitalism, Communism and Colonialism? Revisiting "Transitology" as the Ideology of Informal Empire
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John D Haskell
Abstract
In the context of international law, “transitology" is often used to describe the literature surrounding the former Soviet Union (fSU) and the subsequent reform attempts by Western and Eastern/Central European market reformers. While it is often acknowledged there have been other “waves" of transition, this literature typically asserts that the situation in the fSU is somehow distinct in human history, and thus, to a large extent, unmixable with other past “transition" histories. Likewise, the story of the Soviet Union's dissolution, and the subsequent reforms in its aftermath, largely avoid the radar of critical colonial discourses. In short, there is almost no effort to link the fSU to the 19th century colonial project of Western European states, in particular the story of informal empire. This article seeks to re-frame the post-communist transition debate in terms of the broader international challenges of decolonization, “neo-colonialism," and informal empire building in the West, the former Soviet Union, as well as between the two in the post Soviet space.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Topics Article
- Beyond Soft Law? An Assessment of International Labour Organisation Freedom of Association Complaints as a Means to Protect Collective Bargaining Rights in the United States
- Legal Education in a World Perspective
- U.S. Trade Relations with Arab Countries: Past, Present, and Future
- Capitalism, Communism and Colonialism? Revisiting "Transitology" as the Ideology of Informal Empire
- Competition Law and the Economy in the Russian Federation, 1990-2006
- Advances Article
- (Em)Powering the Constitution: Constitutionalism in a New Key
- La Comunidad de Carhuancho y Sus Avatares por el Agua: Una Mirada al Bien Común y Las Desigualidades Persistentes en la Sierra Central, Perú
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- Towards a Subaltern Theory of Human Rights
- Frontiers Article
- Un Mundo Donde Quepan Muchos Mundos: A Postcolonial Legal Perspective Inspired by the Zapatistas
