Motivation, Methodology, and Phenomenology of Institutional Nihilism in the SEE Countries

The subject of this paper is a critical analysis of the key negative phenomena, processes, and tendencies in the crisis environment of transition countries of the South East Europe (SEE), as well as the explanation of how to form and maintain the institutionally monistic order (of neoliberal type), which is metaphorically named institutional nihilism, because it represents the synergy of many destructive elements. The aim of this paper is to point out the fundamental causes and consequences of systemic and institutional failures. It starts with the basic hypothesis that these failures derive from the dominance of politics over economy and entire society, i.e. from the unprincipled implementation of the voting machinery principles. Two auxiliary hypotheses are also being tested: a) under the influence of strong alternative institutions, institutional nihilism has been created as a degeneration institutional order, which is the main cause of the long-term threat to development (social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, and ethical); and b) dirigisme as institutional monism does not have to derive exclusively from the state (collectivist) sources, but can also derive from private (individual) sources. In this paper, these hypotheses are verified through implementation of general methods of social and economic sciences. It is concluded that phenomenology of institutional nihilism is the main cause