Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

Most of this book is concerned with the problems of transition from the central planning/one-party rule of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union towards market economies and a multi-party political structure. The word “towards” is deliberately used because in all countries concerned the reforms are still work-in-progress and likely to remain so for some years. The objectives of political democracy and a market economy have, however, spread with remarkable speed since the late 1980s — “the Spring of Nations” — but had been, of course, propounded and supported (even introduced in limited ways) in some Eastern countries for much longer.