The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes

"Magyar's new book, co-authored with Bálint Madlovics, is The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes: A Conceptual Framework. It contains, among other insights, a critique of how we usually talk about and measure corruption. Magyar and Madlovics write that the problem with measurements used by, say, Transparency International, which produces an annual index of perceived corruption, is that the index assumes that corruption represents a departure from a norm: 'They understand the state by its formal identity: as dominantly an institution of the public good, with some subordinates who deviate from that purpose and abuse their position by requesting or accepting bribes and appointing cronies without a legitimate basis.' This view of corruption fails when confronted with a government to which corruption is central, or in which corruption is not voluntary but coercive—where the corrupt relationship is forced by one partner upon the other."—New Yorker

"This book, over 800 pages, is one of few serious attempts to offer a systematic and massive 'anatomy', as Magyar and Madlovics rightly call it, of all the possible variations between the oversimplistic dualist opposition of communist dictatorship and liberal democracy. A key feature of this book is that it is structured in a way that can be easily integrated into teaching. The book comes with its own dedicated website offering extensive online resources including a draft seminar that can be adopted for a course on post-communist regimes, and a 3D interactive model of post-communist regime trajectories that can be studied using desktop software and a mobile app. A large number of topologies, analytical models, quotes of important ideas clarifying tables and figures facilitate a variety of teaching methods in classroom settings."
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09668136.2021.1951024—Chi Zhang

"This thought-provoking and comprehensive volume comes at a propitious time. Thirty years following the Soviet Union's collapse, it asks fundamental questions about the nature of the post-communist transition, the quality of governance in the post-Soviet world (and beyond), and the sources of regime variation. With the benefit of hindsight, Bálint Magyar and Bálint Madlovics reflect on an extensive literature in a context of some abject democratic failure and increasingly consolidated corrupt networks in select countries, alongside more positive evelopments, including, variously, sustained economic growth (including in China—a perhaps surprising case for inclusion in the study) and/or increased freedoms in particular regions. For such an extensive investigation, the authors do an admirable job of sustaining the argument. Like all great studies, this one tries to answer some key questions while also provoking pressing new ones."—Rachel A. Epstein, The Russian Review

"I would advise any scholar entering this field to begin by reading this book, and diving into any of the particular areas they illuminate so powerfully—stubborn structures, the state, actors, politics, economy, society, corruption, regimes, and others. Indeed, the next time I teach about (de)democratizations, this volume's diagrams of regime transformations for twelve postcommunist countries will supplement the diagrams Charles Tilly's Democracy (2007) offers. If I headed a foundation I would assemble for six months those dedicated to figuring how power works in culture and society, within the postcommunist world and beyond it, to engage this volume and these scholars."—Michael D. Kennedy, Slavic Review

"The book by Bálint Magyar and Bálint Madlovics is a substantial work, and not only in terms of its physical characteristics. The authors have created a detailed and coherent conceptual framework for the study of post-communist regimes, which will be indispensable for future researchers. In addition to the theoretical coherence, the numerous conceptual innovations and the deep embeddedness in relevant literature, the sheer professionalism of the execution is also worth highlighting – I personally found it particularly useful that the book's website allows us to compare the regime trajectories of different countries. The book is a voluminous and original work that helps us see the functioning of post-communist regimes in historical perspective and on a broad comparative canvas. If not as a textbook to be read in its entirety, it will still be an indispensable part of the reading list for courses on its subject."
https://revdem.ceu.edu/2022/06/24/beyond-the-mafia-state/—Gábor Illés, Review of Democracy

Review symposium on The Anatomy of Post-communist Regimes: "Magyar and Madlovics's book aims to contribute to our understanding of the role of stubborn structures and to highlight the decisive role of informal politics in post-communist political and economic developments. The book elaborates a comprehensive framework for predicting future regime change, authoritarian breakdowns and revolutionary breakthroughs in the post-communist world; and it provides very important insights into the nature of post-communist political, economic and social systems. It is a terrific achievement." "The publication of Magyar and Madlovics's book means that post-communist studies have reached a qualitatively new level. A new paradigm for this research field has emerged. From now scholars working in this branch of knowledge will have to engage with the conclusions of this book, do their research based on them or refine them." "The book defines post-communist countries as relational economies, which are conceptualized as different 'beasts' from both market and planned economies. These relational economies are characterized by interdependency between economic and political power. The book's analysis of mechanisms through which political and economic power interact in these places makes it read like an entertaining political–economic crime novel." "We are offered a refined interpretation of one of Magyar's most important descriptive concepts, the 'mafia state'. Clearly detached from day-to-day criminality, the mafia state is ruled by an adopted political family, patrimonializing political power in a democratic environment and using it in predatory ways, routinely stepping over formal laws and operating the state as a criminal organization. In other words, it is a combination of a clan state, a neopatrimonial-neosultanistic state, a predatory state, and a criminal state."—Oleksandr Fisun, Andrey Ryabov, Sonja Avlijas, Julia Kiraly, Socio-Economic Review

"Among many other fascinating sociological insights, the authors contrast the 'invisible hand' classical-liberal system with the 'grabbing hand' system of a predatory state. They divide the grabbing-hand systems into three categories: (1) Communist totalitarianism, (2) the mafia state, which takes from disloyal outsiders and gives to loyal insiders; and (3) the failed state, where unorganized bureaucrats employ predatory practices unsystematically."
https://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp—Williamson M. Evers, Independent

"As a reader and specialist in post-communist transformations, the author of this review has never seen such an impressive book. Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar deliver an exceptional work, matured in the Hungarian intellectual milieu of the Central European University, which overlaps with the individual researches from each of them. With a remarkable capacity for synthesis, the authors pursue a dual theoretical and pedagogical ambition, exploiting a rare analytical capacity and reflexivity that will benefit both specialists and students."
Link to review:
https://brill.com/view/journals/eris/eris-overview.xml—Jérôme Heurtaux, European Review of International Studies

"Фундаментальный труд Б. Мадьяра, Б. Мадловича представляет значительный интерес для политологов посткоммунистических стран, особенно России и Венгрии, которым авторы уделили особое внимание. Археология ссылок показывает источники формирования авторской парадигмы, которая, вероятно, займет достойное место в гибридологии политических режимов, прежде всего за счет четких классификаций и логики изложения. Впечатляет историографический обзор проблематики постсоветских режимов. Вместе с тем, как и любая парадигма, она должна быть не только верифицирована, но и фальсифицирована (в понимании К. Поппера)."
http://inion.ru/site/assets/files/7527/pn_2023_1.pdf—Расторгуев Сергей Викторович, Политическая наука

"Reading this book feels like having the curtains opened, letting the bright light come in. Everything becomes visible and clear. The experience of living in mushy political reality gives way to unsparing, exact analysis. What comes into focus may not be pretty, but having it illuminated, ordered, and explained is incomparable."—Masha Gessen

"This ambitious book provides not only a better vocabulary, but a whole new grammar for describing the political regimes that emerged in communism's wake. Exposing how conventional frameworks continually mislead, Magyar and Madlovics demonstrate the potential for innovative theory to yield piercing new insights into the reality of politics in the postcommunist world and, indeed, beyond."—Henry Hale

"The authors adopt a structuralist approach, driven by language. They tackle complexity and multidimensionality of post-communist regimes not simply by cataloguing existing concepts but by relating them to each other and constructing a broader, overarching framework: a new language for post-communist regimes. () The conceptual, methodological and semantical innovations will undoubtedly produce an abundance of reactions among scholars, students and readers yearning for orientation in the complex world of post-communist realities."—Alena Ledeneva

"Many social scientists and historians have been puzzled by what is now often called a 'global democratic recession'. This conceptually highly innovative analysis provides terms and theories that are crucial for making sense of our historical moment."—Jan-Werner Mueller

"I have been in the business of 'varieties of post-communist countries' since the early 1990s. Nevertheless this book is better and more important than anything I have done during the past 30 years in two important respects: 1) it carries a far greater number of countries with the most impressive empirical knowledge of their changes of the past decades; 2) it has a far more sophisticated theoretical framework than anything I could develop."—Iván Szelényi