Paper short abstract:

Providing a rare comparative angle from Czech and Poland, this paper offers an insight into the changing perception of political culture and institutional trust in the context of present and past crises.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents preliminary findings of an ethnographic research project that inquires into the phenomenon of populist politics in Central and Eastern Europe in a comparative way. Based on conversations with research participants sharing their political views and concerns within the Czech and Polish networked publics, the study explores a relationship between current political choices and perception of the transition from a communist to a neoliberal free-market economy. Simultaneously, the authors wish to reflect upon and problematize the notion of the commons, as perceived by the interviewees with regards to their historical experiences of ‘actually existing socialism.

In what way various forms of state-driven violence and oppression - in the past and in the present - have influenced the popular perception of and trust towards public institutions? What are perceived reasons for the state malfunctions, among Czech and Polish research participants? In what ways has the coronavirus pandemic further deepened the fears over the interviewees’ already precarious living conditions and how has that affected their political participation and levels of institutional trust? Those and other questions will be addressed by the paper’s authors.