Post-Communism and the Second Birth of Capitalism

Abstract

This article addresses the question of cultural preconditions for the second birth of capitalism in the post-communist context of Central and Eastern Europe with a special reference to Poland and Hungary. The theoretical background of the analysis presented is the so-called cultural paradigm and the concept of economic culture which can be used in order to elaborate on how post-communism affected the second birth of capitalism and how the awareness of the inevitability of changes was meant to reshape the mindsets of those people who had to face them. It is argued that different narratives of capitalism that emerged in the post-communist context present a mixed picture, which indicates that the ethos of the capitalist free market needs to be supported with a strong institutional setting as well as legal and political culture.