Unplanned from Plan to Market : A Concluding Analysis

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.