JVF Conference Papers
Commenting on the events after the fall of the Berlin Wall Slavoj Zizek asked, “Why has the West been so fascinated by the events in Eastern Europe (after the collapse of the communist system)?” Not expecting an answer by anyone else that would satisfy him, he gave one himself. “What fascinated the Western gaze was the re-invention of democracy.… …it seemed as if democracy had been re-discovered in its entire newness and freshness.
The real object of this fascination of the West is the gaze, the presumably naïve gaze, with which Eastern Europe stares at the West, fascinated by its democracy.”
