POST-COMMUNIST TRANSFORMATIONS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. “HOLISTIC VERSUS EXTENDED ORDER” MODEL

Abstract

The transition of Central and Eastern European post-communist countries followed different sets of reforms with different degrees of success which generated a monolithic debate attitude for decades. From shock-therapy and intermediary to gradualist approaches, I stress the superiority of Bing-Bang reforms to market-based economies from economic, political and social perspectives. In this paper, after identifying the structural reforms started after 1989, I emphasize several variables that demonstrates the superiority of shock-therapy reforms for 22 countries grouped in four specific categories. After the examination that leads to the result that the radicalists won the battle with the gradualists, from epistemological to “numerical” point of views, we tried to propose an explanation for this historical fact and we consider this is due to the superiority of the extended order over the holistic one. Future work is needed to analyse the role of geographical proximity with the Western world and of historical legacies in the advancement of the debate.