To understand the political dimension of dissident legacies, we need first to understand the components that “made” the dissidents and follow their reconfiguration after 1989, leading to initial empowerment followed by gradual demise of the liberal post-dissident elite. Dissidence in the form that first appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s in central and eastern Europe constituted a particular mode of political practice, combining open, non-violent dissent with universalist moral claims. The phenomenon of dissidentism was transnational, as political empowerment of oppositionists was achieved through a particular network of relationships between domestic audiences, repressive regimes, and Western media, social movements, trade unions, political parties, and policymakers. The specificities of the dissidents’ empowerment can partly explain key features of post-dissident politics and the visible backlash against former prominent dissidents, which has contributed to the rise of illiberalism and to democratic backsliding. This article traces the post-1989 trajectories of a few who belonged among central Europe’s most prominent representatives in this symbolic category, to try to explain the causes and character of the swift backlash against them—or as Václav Havel put it, their “expulsion from the fairytale.” Three pillars of dissident political power turned into the roots of their demise. First, critics question the dissidents’ uniqueness and rewrite their master narrative. Further, we see a clash of representations that results from the dissidents’ transnational empowerment, and third, the broader anti-elite and anti-intellectual tendencies that always accompanied dissidence as its shadow became amplified by more recent populist rhetoric.

中文翻译：

---

被驱逐出童话故事：持不同政见者遗产对 1989 年后中欧政治的影响


要了解持不同政见者遗产的政治维度，我们首先需要了解“造就”持不同政见者的组成部分，并跟随他们在 1989 年后进行的重新配置，导致最初的赋权，然后是自由派后持不同政见精英的逐渐消亡。1960 年代末和 1970 年代初首次出现在中欧和东欧的持不同政见构成了一种特殊的政治实践模式，将公开、非暴力的异议与普世主义的道德主张相结合。持不同政见的现象是跨国的，因为反对派的政治赋权是通过国内观众、专制政权和西方媒体、社会运动、工会、政党和政策制定者之间的特定关系网络实现的。持不同政见者赋权的特殊性可以部分解释后持不同政见者政治的关键特征和对前著名持不同政见者的明显反弹，这导致了反自由主义的兴起和民主倒退。本文追溯了 1989 年后属于中欧这一象征性类别中最杰出代表的少数人的轨迹，试图解释对他们迅速反弹的原因和特征——或者正如瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔 （Václav Havel） 所说，他们“被驱逐出童话故事”。持不同政见的政治权力的三大支柱变成了他们灭亡的根源。首先，批评者质疑持不同政见者的独特性，并改写他们的主要叙述。此外，我们看到了异见人士的跨国赋权导致的表述冲突，第三，更广泛的反精英和反知识倾向总是伴随着异见人士，因为它的阴影被最近的民粹主义言论放大了。