In an age dominated by neoliberal worldview, one conceptualization of ‘democracy’ has become a commodity that helps to sustain the hegemonic political-economic system. Recently this has been the case with post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe’s (CEE) trade with ‘transition experience’. In the post-1989 period, the CEE’s (re)-westernization and de/re-colonization have been facilitated by various Western ‘democracy assistance’ programs. In the wake of CEE’s ‘return to Europe’ (EU entry in 2004), some of these programs were repackaged, reassembled and forwarded further to the East and South. This happened without democracy promoters’ engagement with socio-economic factors of democratic governance and access to political rights and has further contributed to reification of ‘there is no alternative to neoliberalism’ narrative. Much of the CEEs policies towards global East and South and in particular the new ‘democracy assistance’ programs are focused on strengthening resilience of individuals in transforming countries while systemic factors of access to rights go unchallenged. This paper understands ‘democracy’ and ‘transition experience’ as commodities advertised and traded by the CEEs with the goal to confirm the region’s newfound belonging to the ‘West’. Of key interest to the paper are the commodity chains and assemblages of ‘democracy’ produced and reproduced in interaction between democracy ‘workers’ (CEE activists running the projects on the ground) and owners and donors of the enterprise (CEE governments and US and EU democracy promotion agencies). The paper traces broader trends in the CEE and places them in dialogue with global ‘democracy promotion’ agenda, the core site for empirical (ethnographic) research is the Czech Republic.
