The New Great Transformation?

The post-communist societies of Eastern Europe are examples of a social formation of great theoretical interest with distinctive features of its own. They reveal that Soviet imposed "real socialism" has produced more fundamental and enduring changes in the region than had generally been believed. That this is so is most evident in the societies which have historically been the most western-oriented and in which political and economic reforms are now most advanced: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Their governments are trying to effect a transition to democracy and the free market in conditions which are not necessarily propitious. It is already clear that many of the immediate benefits which neo-liberals expcted to flow from dismantling the old system have not materialised; what the eventual outcome of the changes will be is open to question. For this reason it is better to speak of a transition from a known past to an unknown future than a transition to a guaranteed end-state. Among the central issues discussed are the legacy of real socialism, the efficacy of neo-liberal economic reforms and the demand for soical protection, the status of homo economicus, the social conditions of economic reconstruction and the social dimensions of privatisation and marketisation, the regeneration of civil society, and interest representation and the prospects for democracy. Some of the issue recall elements of Polyani's analysis of the original great transformation to a market economy in Nineteenth Century Western Europe and North America. The editors have long-standing interests in developments in post-war Eastern Europe and have collaborated over twenty years.