Abstract
The policy recommendations of western economists looking at eastern Europe after the velvet revolutions of 1989 predicted a fairytale ending to a story as yet untold: ‘[A former state socialist country] was poor, then it chose capitalism, then as a result it became rich’ (adopted from McCloskey, 1990: 26). Faced with an uncertain future, this prophecy proved compellingly seductive. It intuitively appealed to policy-makers confronted with the aftermath of the collapse of state socialism for a variety of reasons. At first sight, it offered a simplistic historical interpretation. In particular, its rhetorical message reflected an unquestioned belief in the crisis of one system (Schabowski, 1992: 8). However, the imaginary plot alluded to an existing solution without examining the appropriateness of the proposed policy recommendations (Keegan, 1993: 1–2).
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Geiger, T. (1998). Believing in the Miracle Cure: The Economic Transition Process in Germany and East-Central Europe. In: Larres, K. (eds) Germany since Unification. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26132-1_9
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