Perspectives On Political Economy Of Post Communist Transition

Examining transformations using a variety of perspectives Theorizing Transition provides both a rich empirical map of the dimensions of post-Communism and raises important theoretical issues about how we interpret these changes.

In this collection of essays David A Dyker explores some of the most difficult and fascinating aspects of the process of transition from autocratic ?real socialism? to a capitalism that is sometimes democratic, sometimes authoritarian. The stress is on the economic dimension of transformation, but the author sets the economic drama firmly within a political economy framework and a historical perspective. Trends in key economic variables are analysed against the background of the struggle between different social and political groups for power and command over resources. While the book pays due attention to topical issues like EU enlargement, the underlying perspective is a long-term one. Transition is viewed not as a set of once-and-for-all institutional changes or a process of short-term stabilisation, but as a historic opportunity to solve the inherited problem of poverty and underdevelopment in Central-East Europe and the former Soviet Union. The book ends with a critical assessment of how economics, as a discipline, has coped with the challenge of that historic opportunity.

Political Economy of Transition and Development collects the proceedings of an international conference that brought the leading thinkers in this field to the Center for European Integration Studies of the University of Bonn in May, 2002. The contributions analyze the various interactions between institutions, policy choices, economic developments, and political outcomes in transition and developing countries. The first five chapters give a relatively broad assessment of the various reform paths and outcomes in the transition and developing countries. The remaining eight chapters proceed to analyze important aspects of transition such as voting behavior, political-regime choice, corruption, social capital, growth and inequality, and EU enlargement. The resulting volume thus combines a bird's eye perspective with a relatively narrow focus on selected key issues pertaining to the ongoing transition process in Central and Eastern Europe.

Shortlisted for the 2013 BISA IPEG Book Prize, this book explores how Eastern Europe’s post-communist transition can only be understood as part of a broader interrogation of neoliberal hegemony in the global political economy, and provides a detailed historical account of the emergence of neoliberalism in Eastern Central Europe. Adopting an innovative Gramscian approach to post-communist transition, this book charts the rise to hegemony of neoliberal social forces. Using transition in Poland as a starting point, the author traces how particular social forces most intimately associated with transnational capital successful in the struggle over competing reform strategies. Transition is broken down into three stages; the "first wave" illustrates how the rise of particular social forces shaped by global change gave rise to a neoliberal strategy of capitalism from the 1970s. It goes on to show how the political economy of Europeanization, associated with EU enlargement instilled a "second wave" of neoliberalisation. Finally, exploring recent populist and left wing alternatives in the context of the current financial crisis, the book outlines how counter-hegemonic struggle might oppose a "third wave" neoliberalisation. The International Political Economy of Transition will be of interest to students and scholars of international political economy, post-communist studies and European politics

This book offers distinctive perspectives, by four leading students of politics, on the single most important social, political, and economic development of the 1990s: post-communist Eurasia.

The work's major substantive themes revolve around problems of post-communist socio-economic transformations. Specifically, it explores post-communist systemic change, the role of religion and collective identity, the significance of trust and economic culture, patterns of state-economy interactions in enterprise restructuring, the context of EU expansion, the strengths and weaknesses of economic theory and neo-liberal doctrine, and the history of ideas in the post-communist transformation debate.

Very few studies have ventured to explore the shift in economic ideas that were such a critical factor in shaping and understanding the East European transition process. Paul Dragos Aligica and Anthony J. Evans have seized upon the potential that this crucial case has to illuminate the larger phenomenon of diffusion and adoption of economic ideas. Two different but related research agendas are developed: the study of the spread of neoliberalism as seen from the perspective of Eastern European post-communist evolutions and the study of Eastern European transition as seen from an ideas-centered perspective. Combining a distinctive synthesis of the existing data about the spread of neoliberal economic ideas in Central and Eastern Europe with an analysis of the processes at work, the authors challenge a series of misunderstandings and myths about the spread of neoliberal economic ideas. The disputed topics include: the myth of an Eastern European rush to embrace the theories and ideas that may be considered the mark of market fundamentalism ; the notion that a harsh neoliberal dogmatism was somehow imposed on the region from outside; the idea that the standardization and regimentation of economic thinking was a result of the spread of the Western way of doing economics; and the belief that the Eastern Europeans passively embraced this uniformity and standardization due to pressure from the Westerners. This unusual synthesis will appeal to scholars in economics, political science, communist/post-communist studies and new institutionalism, as well as policymakers.

An answer for the economist is a question for a policy maker. Most economists are confronted daily with the practical question of how the world is organised and how the global economy performs? When economists conclude they can grasp certain aspects scientifically, they offer an answer, which becomes, in turn, a question to the policy makers, keen on changing the world for the better. The unique approach presented in the book is the combination of the theoretical considerations with the policy viewpoint analysis, due to the author's own experience with policy-making as deputy premier and finance minister of Poland (twice and very successful as an architect of Polish reforms). Another important feature is a vast, yet comprehensive and deep discussion of the interactions between technology change and society and the economy both, in the world economy and in emerging markets, especially the post-communist ones. Of great importance for sustained development are the institutions. They are not only created and built, but also need to be learnt. Not only theoretical arguments, but also the practical experience demonstrates that faster economic growth is attained by those countries which take greater care to foster the institutional reinforcement of market economy and civic society. Yet progress in market-economy institution building is not in itself sufficient to ensure durable and fast growth. Another indispensable component is an appropriately designed and implemented economic policy, which must not confuse the means with the aims.