Jokubas Salyga
University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, Political Science, Faculty Member
- I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The main focus of my... moreI am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
The main focus of my research is located in the broad area of historical sociology and political economy of capitalist development in East-Central Europe. I am particularly interested in post-communist transformations in the Baltic states, forms of resistance against neoliberal restructuring of East-Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union as well as analytical concepts in historical materialism.edit
The books under review exemplify some of the finest recent work on the historically informed political economy of Central and Eastern Europe. While different in their conceptual frameworks and geographical foci, the titles converge in the... more
The books under review exemplify some of the finest recent work on the historically informed political economy of Central and Eastern Europe. While different in their conceptual frameworks and geographical foci, the titles converge in the advancement of nuanced and convincing arguments, displaying both theoretical acuity and empirical depth to great effect. Bartel, Fabry, and Pula all share a resolute dedication to illuminating the under-explored provenances of neoliberalism and/or globalization in the region, that predate the annus mirabilis of 1989. Their contributions situate the 'Eastern bloc' states within the contours of evolving global political economy and the existential crises engulfing capitalism and 'actually existing socialism' during the 1970s and beyond. The authors expound on the intricate web of global capital accumulation, geopolitical competition, and skillful diplomatic strategy, which served to dismantle the 'Iron Curtain'. Two contributions further assess the postscripts of the 1989 revolutions.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Political Economy, Development Studies, Globalization, Geopolitics, and 11 moreCold War, International Political Economy, Populism, Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Post-Socialism, Financial Crises and International Financial Integration, The Global Political Economy, Hungary, Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ), and Post-Communist Studies
This paper argues that the paths taken by Estonia and Latvia in their departure from the rouble zone are illustrative of authoritarian neoliberal governance. By challenging the widely assumed simultaneity of 'democratic' and 'market'... more
This paper argues that the paths taken by Estonia and Latvia in their departure from the rouble zone are illustrative of authoritarian neoliberal governance. By challenging the widely assumed simultaneity of 'democratic' and 'market' revolutions, it critiques institutionalist literature on Baltic exchange-rate regimes and sheds light on the various methods employed to curtail democratic political discourse and participation. The paper delves into the origins of the Baltic neoliberal historical blocs and identifies the social forces that influenced the development and presentation of monetary reform initiatives. It then explores the construction of exchange-rate systems through the lens of power struggles within the state bureaucracy, as well as the restructuring of state apparatuses to limit public oversight of monetary policy formulation and implementation. Finally, the paper demonstrates how Baltic currency boards effectively facilitated the establishment of externally-oriented capital accumulation regimes.
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This article uncovers the pre-1991 origins of Baltic neoliberal regimes. It highlights the role of the communication networks between reformist economists in the Baltic National Fronts and social forces advocating neoliberalism in... more
This article uncovers the pre-1991 origins of Baltic neoliberal regimes. It highlights the role of the communication networks between reformist economists in the Baltic National Fronts and social forces advocating neoliberalism in Scandinavia and the United States. We assert that those networks functioned as the early carriers of ideational and policy change, even if reform contents were authored by domestic rather than transnational agencies. Firstly, the article previews the structural factors conducive to network formation. Secondly, it examines the networks by highlighting cross-national differences. Finally, it chronicles the idiosyncratic paths of neoliberal reformers' ascendance to the positions of influence.
Research Interests: Economic Sociology, History of Ideas, Baltic Studies, International Political Economy, Eastern European history, and 15 moreNeoliberalism, Neoliberal ideologies, Critical international political economy, Scandinavian Studies, Post-Communism, The Global Political Economy, Baltic States, Think Tanks, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Post-Communist Studies, Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Epistemic communities, and History of the Baltic states
The recent thirtieth anniversaries of restored Baltic territorial sovereignties coincide with a quandary in which the region appears "highly unequal but classless." This article revisits the conduct of the 2008-2011 crisis management... more
The recent thirtieth anniversaries of restored Baltic territorial sovereignties coincide with a quandary in which the region appears "highly unequal but classless." This article revisits the conduct of the 2008-2011 crisis management operations through the prisms of class struggle and social movements. It conceptualizes the imposition of austerity measures as a class-constituted social movement from above. I argue that the latter has to be positioned relationally against locally articulated forms of resistance from below that have so far remained insufficiently explored. Therefore, the practice of unearthing Baltic "militant particularisms" carries the potential of subverting the "absent protest thesis" in the imposition of austerity on the region's populations.
Research Interests: Baltic Studies, Crisis Management, International Political Economy, Eastern European history, Resistance (Social), and 14 moreNeoliberalism, Labor History and Studies, Financial Crisis of 2008/2009, Raymond Williams, Central and Eastern Europe, Baltic States, Protest Movements, Austerity, Austerity Measures, Strikes, Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Critical Political Economy, Politics of Austerity, and Transition in Central and Eastern Europe
This article approaches the electoral success of Estonia’s Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) from a Critical Political Economy perspective. It explores immediate and longer-term factors conducive to the surge in the support of this... more
This article approaches the electoral success of Estonia’s Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) from a Critical Political Economy perspective. It explores immediate and longer-term factors conducive to the surge in the support of this far-right party. After situating the radical rightist reaction in Estonia within the wider continuum of far-right morphologies across Europe, the article attributes the immediate factors explaining EKRE’s ascendence to the conjuncture of the 2008 economic crisis and its resolution. It is contended that the authoritarian neoliberal (post-)crisis environments engendered a surveillance-based imposition of fiscal restraint at the European level and recalibrated the repertories of state interventionism at the national spatial scale. In Estonia, this served to (re-)produce the vocabularies of crisis in line with the far-right’s sensibilities and eroded the public’s trust in the parties of the political mainstream. The analysis of immediate factors behind the r...
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Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this article reassesses 'post-communist' transformation in the Baltic countries from the perspective of labour. The argument is based on a historical materialist approach focusing on the... more
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this article reassesses 'post-communist' transformation in the Baltic countries from the perspective of labour. The argument is based on a historical materialist approach focusing on the social relations of production as a starting point. It is contended that the uneven and combined unfolding of 'post-communist' transformation has subjected Baltic labour to doubly constituted exploitation processes. First, workers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have suffered from extreme neo-liberal restructuring of economic and employment relations at home. Second, migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe in general, trying to escape exploitation at home, have faced another set of exploitative dynamics in host countries in Western Europe such as the UK. Nevertheless, workers have continued to challenge exploitation in Central and Eastern Europe and also in Western Europe, and have been active in extending networks of transnational solidarity across the continent.
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Since the end of free movement within the EU, Britain's farms have relied on seasonal migrants allowed into the country for just a few months at a time. Denied almost any possibility to change jobs, their situation shows how bosses can... more
Since the end of free movement within the EU, Britain's farms have relied on seasonal migrants allowed into the country for just a few months at a time. Denied almost any possibility to change jobs, their situation shows how bosses can use visa rules to blackmail a pliant workforce into swallowing the most degrading conditions.
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Why Migrant Farm Workers Are Living Four to a Caravan in a Time of Social Distancing