Market Failure, State Failure, Institutions, and Historical Constraints in the East European Transition

Abstract

This paper attempts to extend these arguments to the way in which the transition in the Soviet bloc has been conceived. We first review some of the questionable approaches to the role of the market that underpins so much thinking about the transition. We then attempt to situate the transition in a broader historical perspective before finally suggesting that recent attempts to learn from 'the mistakes' of the early transition years reflect a far less substantial rethinking than is actually necessary. Much transitology still bears all the hallmarks of belief in a theory 'in the face of commanding evidence to the contrary'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] (Ebsco)