Early transition was characterized by debate over shock therapy and gradualism as alternative reform strategies. Other important debates concerned the nature of the former USSR. Was it ever Socialist and what were its laws of motion? What implications does the old system have for the course of post-communist reforms? These are among the key issues analysed in this book, through a mix of conceptual analysis and an interesting selection of country studies.

This ground-breaking new volume focuses on the interaction between political, social, and economic change in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States. It includes a wide selection of analytic papers, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars in diverse fields, and an agenda for future research. It integrates work on the micro and macro levels of the economy and provides a broad overview of the transition process. This volume broadens the current intellectual and policy debate concerning the historic transition now taking place from a narrow concern with purely economic factors to the dynamics of political and social change. It questions the assumption that the post-communist economies are all following the same path and that they will inevitably develop into replicas of economies in the advanced industrial West. It challenges accepted thinking and promotes the utilization of new methods and perspectives.

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.

Post-communist transformation differs from any previous experience of societies in transition by its scope, speed, international framework and complicity. It contains elements of democratization, marketization, nation building, and the creation of a new international environment in the framework of globalization. The contributors give an 'internal' perspective of these highly complicated processes in a comparative form and using a multidisciplinary approach.

Democracy and Enlargement in Post-Communist Europe presents the principal findings of a unique in-depth study of the birth of democracy and the market economy in fifteen post-Communist countries. Haerpfer analyses and compares the information collected by the New Democracies Barometer public opinion surveys to provide an overview of the process of democratization across Central and Eastern Europe. This is an extremely valuable resource and will be useful for all those interested in the European Union, comparative politics and democracy and the Communist legacy. It contains data from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

No modern economy can escape open unemployment as long as free labour and a free labour market exist. In any modern economy, there exists a tension between economic individualism and economic collectivism, but market forces cannot forever be denied. While Part 1 examines open and hidden unemployment in capitalist market economies and socialist command economies prior to 1989, Part 2 concentrates on the issue of unemployment in post-communist economies between 1989 and the end of 1993. Finally, Part 3 summarizes, re- examines, and expands on those selected dimensions of the issue of unemployment that are deemed currently to be relevant to both Western and post-communist economies. Although the book is primarily about unemployment, open as well as hidden, it also is about economic systems and their transformation and, hence, about the role of the state in the economy.

'Frank Bönker has done a masterful job. . . This is probably the best book available on this important subject. and its significance is not limited to studies of postcommunist societies. It has important theoretical implications for everyone interested in the Political Economy of Policy Reform perspective within the field of comparative political economy.' - John L. Campbell, Slavic Review

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.

Although it has been more than 20 years since Communism crumbled in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, many scholars and politicians still wonder what the lifting of the Iron Curtain has really meant for these former Communist countries. And, because these countries were largely closed off to the world for so long, there has yet to be an all-inclusive study on their administrative systems—until now. In Public Administration in Post-Communist Countries: Former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and Mongolia, expert contributors supply a comprehensive overview and analysis of public administration in their respective post-Communist countries. They illustrate each country’s transformation from an authoritarian system of governance into a modern, market-based, and in some cases, democratic government. The book covers the countries that were officially part of the Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan); those that were theoretically independent but were subject to Soviet-dominated Communist rule (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Poland); as well as a satellite republic that was under significant Soviet influence (Mongolia). Each chapter includes a brief introduction to the specific country, an overview of politics and administration, and discussions on key aspects of public management and administration—including human resource management, public budgeting, financial management, corruption, accountability, political and economic reform, civil society, and prospects for future development in the region. The book concludes by identifying common themes and trends and pinpointing similarities and differences to supply you with a broad comparative perspective.

A guide to the experiences economic reform since the second world war, and system reform and economic integration across the world in the past decade. The first part of the book examines why only a small number of developing countries have succeeded in their modernization attempts this century. What lessons can be learnt from the successes of the East Asian NIEs and failures of other economies to emulate them? The very different experiences of the transition to market economies in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and China is the focus of the next section, with comparisons drawn with the Latin American reform experience, especially in Chile. The effects of economic integration schemes are examined in the final sector, with case-studies of Tunisia and Morocco's Free Trade Agreements with the EU, and of economic integration and the Arab-Israeli peace process.