Post-Imperial Regions: Associated Dependence in Development of Eastern Europe

Abstract

Olga Kutsenko — Head of the Department of Social Structures and Social Relations, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev. Address: 64/13, Volodymyrska St., Kiev, 01601, Ukraine. E-mail: olga.kutsenko.ua28@gmail.com.

Andrii Gorbachyk — Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Head of the Department of Methodology and Methods of Sociological Research, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev. Address: 64/13, Volodymyrska St., Kiev, 01601, Ukraine. E-mail: deаn@sоc.unіv.kіev.ua.

In this paper we attempt to investigate whether imperial legacy can explain the divergence of transformation pathways in the post-socialist countries of Europe. Particularly, we test the following hypotheses: 1) each empire shapes a strong cultural legacy which is reproduced over time even after an empire’s collapse; 2) post-imperial states differ from each other in terms of basic cultural dimensions, such as attitudes to social order, social trust, religiosity, identity, and inclination to inherit the basic cultural features of the former empire’s centre.

The empirical investigation is based on the data from the European Values Survey 2008, which is available for 22 countries that were once a part of Ottoman, Russian, Austrian and/or German empires. Our analysis shows that mass consciousness, interpersonal ties, attitudes, etc. are indeed strongly associated with certain imperial legacies. Particularly, through cluster analysis we identify three post-imperial areas which display highly pronounced differences in basic culture and pattern of social development: (1) Austrian and German; (2) Turkish and (3) Russian. This is highly consistent with Braudel’s theses about the mismatch of cultural and economic ‘zones’, and the strong relevance of ‘imperial experience’ with respect to the modern development of post-socialist countries.