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Intangible Factors in the Eastern European Transition: A Socio-Economic Analysis

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  • John Tomer

Abstract

Transition has generally been conceived of as a substitution of the organisational structures and the legal, financial and political relationships of capitalism for those of socialism, a replacement of 'hard' features. This conception leaves out 'soft' factors such as attitudes, behavioural orientations, values and beliefs which, for successful socio-economic performance, must mesh with the hard elements. When all the hard features are changed quickly without attention to the soft features, as in the neo-liberal radical reform strategy, the result is inevitably a deep shock greatly retarding the transition process. To avoid this, sufficient attention should be paid to intangible capital formation that creates new soft features. The socio-economic theory developed here (1) explains the differing degrees of transition success in Eastern Europe and (2) suggests alternatives to neo-liberal transition strategy.

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  • John Tomer, 2002. "Intangible Factors in the Eastern European Transition: A Socio-Economic Analysis," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 421-444.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pocoec:v:14:y:2002:i:4:p:421-444
    DOI: 10.1080/1463137022000032664
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    2. Ichiro Iwasaki & Taku Suzuki, 2016. "Radicalism Versus Gradualism: An Analytical Survey Of The Transition Strategy Debate," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 807-834, September.
    3. Baliga, B.R. & Santalainen, Timo J., 2006. "Transformation of state-owned enterprises in Estonia and India: An examination of the relative influences of cultural variations," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 140-157, June.
    4. Bernd Gorzig & Martin Gornig & Ramona Voshage & Axel Werwatz, 2010. "Eastern Germany on the brink of closing the productivity gap? Firm level evidence from manufacturing," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 499-511.

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