Good governance in Central and Eastern Europe: The puzzle of capitalism by design

Book abstract:

This work examines the transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe in the move from a politically authoritarian system with mandatory economic planning to a democratic order based on market co-ordination. Its basic assumptions are that designing a market economy is not to be mistaken for destroying the institutional legacy of communism and that mutual dependency between democratisation and market reform has a definite impact on the path of transformation.

The key question asked in the book is: 'How to promote good governance and enforce it?' Three aspects are examined: economic performance; external conditionality; elite formation and domestic constraints. Studies address the consequence of break-up in the Czech and Slovak Republics and evaluate the outcome of the transformation by merger experience in Germany.

The work will interest scholars and researchers in the fields of political and economic transformation in Central and Easter Europe.

Herman W. Hoen is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.