The treadmill of reforms in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Concepts about enacting economic reforms have been explored by the CPEs and MPEs for over thirty years. Indeed, modifications in the model and strategy of the orthodox CPE have been entertained roughly since the mid-1950s, after the first egregious bottlenecks with Stalinist-type, highly centralized economic administration had become glaringly evident. Since then, various substitute models have been formulated and many different types of MPEs have been tried. But none has even come close to what a PET at this particular stage is striving to become. It is instructive to obtain a firm grasp of the vastly different economic environment that the more ambitious of these countries are currently aiming at. Such an understanding is a prerequisite to discussing the transition from where these countries find themselves at present to the status they are coveting.