Technology transfer and the East European transition

The East European transitions have unique historical features but they are also part of a universal trend toward democratization that both impelled their origins and influences their future direction. Other parts of the world are also undergoing one or more of these transitions in different guises, in particular from top-down bureaucratic controls to ‘bottom-up’ entrepreneurship. As the East implements market structures, there is a parallel movement in the West to introduce planning mechanisms — not centralized control structures of former socialism but decentralized procedures to identify critical technologies, and foresight exercises. The transition is toward a mixed system of market force and government incentives. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.