Hilary Appel

Hilary Appel serves as an Assistant Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, specializing in economic and political transformations across Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Her research critically examines privatization programs in post-communist states through the lens of ideological drivers rather than purely economic factors. In her seminal work A New Capitalist Order: Privatization and Ideology in Russia and Eastern Europe, she demonstrates how pro-market reformers utilized privatization to advance Western liberal visions for post-Soviet governance, with ideologies like anticommunism and nationalism fundamentally shaping outcomes.

This scholarship reveals privatization's unintended consequences—including systemic corruption and material deprivation—while establishing its role as foundational to postcommunist state-building rather than a mere economic transition tool.