WAS TRANSITION ABOUT FREE-MARKET ECONOMICS?

Transition has not always been a success story. In some cases failure was due to the introduction of top-down legislature, which was not always compatible with the existing informal rules of the game. In other cases transition was just a euphemism for a fight for power with little substantial change. Still, most Western analysts indulged in analysing all East-European economies according to a rather standard (neo-classical) pattern. This paper explains this approach by referring to the need to maintain rent-seeking policies in the West, to create new rents in the East. Western governments complied with the constructivistic view willingly, especially in the EU area, for social engineering was instrumental in order to acquire and expand consensus on the principles of state interference. 2WAS TRANSITION ABOUT FREE-MARKET ECONOMICS? The end of transition economics After a decade of transition, the former Soviet bloc is experiencing what is generally known as "transition fatigue". This expression refers to rather vaguely-defined situations, whereby satisfaction about generally growing living standards is at least partially offset by disappointment about relativel