The Governments’ Commitment to Undertaking Reforms

Abstract

Comparative analysis of the decision making processes that determined the economic choices of the new democracies shows that most of the factors that are judged apriori to be favourable to a government’s committing itself to undertaking adjustment measures do not in fact constitute a constant decisive influence in this regard. Governments are not necessarily more inclined to undertake a process of economic cleansing and liberalization when an economic crisis is serious or when they are at the beginning of an electoral mandate; they are not necessarily more resolved to adopt an adjustment program when they are in the majority, dominated by a party of the right or submitted to pressure on the part of their partners and foreign investors. The comparative analysis of the Southern European cases largely confirms these conclusions.