The Anglo-American Model of Economic Organization and Governance: Entropy and the Fragmentation of Social Solidarity in Twenty-first Century Latvia

Inequalities During and After Transition in Central and Eastern Europe

“…In the Baltic Republics there was less concern to create new services or to continue with forms of provision from state socialism, which was viewed even more negatively in these countries as a period of suppression of national rights and identities (see Steen, 1997;SmithSivertsen, 2004;Sommers, 2009). In no case was there a clear and detailed programme on how the old system should be changed, but directions taken in CEECs had striking similarities, reflecting common modes of thinking in the new elites. An important element was an implicit critique of the previous system of state socialism.…”

Austerity, labour market segmentation and emigration: the case of Lithuania

“…At the same time, neoliberal social and employment policies were adopted to attract foreign direct investment on preferential terms, providing a cheap, well‐educated and ‘flexible’ labour force, low taxes, and lax regulation for (low value) export‐directed assembly manufacturing. This process was accompanied by the formation of a secondary labour market with few representational and collective rights (Sommers, ).…”

(Self-)Confidence, Migration, and the State: A Study of Emigration from Latvia

“…Starting in the early 1990s, the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia all undertook swift transitions from socialism to free market economies. In an effort to both distance themselves from their Soviet past and align themselves with a future as part of the “West” they wanted to join, including to eventually meet the conditions for becoming European Union (EU) members, they embraced a more “radical” form of neoliberal restructuring than other Eastern European societies (Bohle and Greskovits 2007; Sommers 2009; Ozoliņa 2019). In Latvia, part of what made this restructuring “radical” was the vehemence with which the state and ruling elite promoted these changes culturally ; reframing of the role of individuals to emphasize individual responsibility and initiative (for similar processes in Estonia, see Lauristin and Vihalemm 2009; in Lithuania, see Klumbytė 2010).…”

“…Under neoliberalism, the “cultural trope of individual responsibility” (Wacquant 2010: 213)—present in Western culture since the Enlightenment—was exaggerated to extremes and, in areas undergoing neoliberal restructuring, was strongly emphasized to motivate people to engage in productive activity. When international advisory boards or committees recommended neoliberal principles to the ruling elites in post-Soviet Latvia, these were accepted with great rigor and confidence (Bohle and Greskovits 2007; Sommers 2009), again both distancing Latvia from its past and aligning it with the “West” and the future its leaders sought. Post-Soviet times have, thus, been shaped as times of “hyper-individualism” (Sommers 2009:128).…”