Anti-capitalism and nationalism
Julia Zelikova gave a talk on "Anti-capitalism and nationalism in the post-communist countries".
On March, 1st, 2012, Julia Zelikova, Research fellow at the Laboratory of Comparative Social Research gave a talk on "Anti-capitalism and nationalism in the post-communist countries". The topic of the research is devoted to studying causes of anti-capitalist attitudes and measuring their level in Ex-communist European countries. Previous report by Julia.
After the collapse of communist regime in Eastern and Central Europe, despite the lack of alternatives to capitalism, we can observe a high level of anti-capitalist dispositions in these countries which is higher than in all other countries. Luc Boltanski claimed that commitment to capitalism depends on the ability of the state's ideology to explain the benefits of capitalism. This ideology is called "The Spirit of Capitalism."
Julia's research is based on the 3rd wave of World Value Survey. Such parameters as right of ownership on business, responsibility and competition are used for measuring the commitment to capitalism. At the same time, freedom of choice, security and justices are used as components of the "spirit of capitalism" index. Regression model shows that some anti-capitalist attitudes in the post-communist countries can be explained by the power of the "spirit of capitalism" ideology, but in some countries this model does not work.
In this regard, it has been hypothesized that the success of economic and political reforms in Eastern and Central Europe depends on the level of nationalism in the country. In countries where such reforms have been conducted successfully, the level of anti-capitalism is associated with the ideology of the "spirit of capitalism", and in countries where these reforms have had little success, the level of anti-capitalist dispositions can be explained by the level of nationalism. Multilevel analysis confirmed this hypothesis.
After the report, questions about constructing “spirit of capitalism” index were raised. Thus this index is based on Boltanski’s theory, participants of the seminar suggested to check whether these variables are suitable for such an index using factor analysis. After the end of discussion, further directions of project development were discussed.
Olga Basmanova