The role of political-economic factors in transition

The aim of the article is the evaluation of the role of political-economic factors in transition of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on the background of their economic performance. The evaluation makes use of various methodological approaches differentiating between the extent (speed) of structural reforms and the quality of institutional framework. The surveyed factors include political and economic freedom, initial conditions, process of liberalization, and quality of governance. Despite some caveats of such analyses which limit the explanatory value of the observed relationships, the political-economic factors can be considered an important ingredient explaining diverging economic performance of transition countries, particularly in the case when the performance differences are rather large.

Keywords: political economy of transition, liberalization, structural reforms, economic freedom, corruption