The Post-Socialist Transformation of Central and Eastern European Countries at the Turn of the Century: Regional Development and Economic Inequality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17059/2016-3-1Keywords:
regional development, economic inequality, integrated modernization, economic transformation, new states, clustering, institutional reforms, social differentiation, middle classAbstract
The evolution of the socio-economic systems is a non-linear process and it contains periods with smooth changes and subsequent periods of sharp jump transformation. The general design of new prospects opens at a stage of the birth of evolutionary processes, their forecasting requires the analysis of the historical prerequisites and risks, which are closely integrated to the change of moods in society. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent states have passed the transformational and evolutional stage of development from the regional economy (they actually were the regions) to the economy of the state; the Central and Eastern European countries have experienced a dramatic “drift” to the European Union. In the article, the results of almost 25 years' transformation of these states are considered. New states, formed as a result of the collapse of the USSR, passed throughout three types of transformation. Firstly, it is the transformation at the ideological level. The transformation of the second type was purely economic. The third type can be characterized as the institutional (including structural and financial) transformation. It is shown that one of the important reasons for the modest economic performance in the post-Soviet space is that newly independent states ignore and do not use in the practice the principles of regional policy and regional modernization. One of the important characteristic of the social and economic evolution of the countries of Eastern Europe after 1990 became the process of stratification and social differentiation of society with an insufficiently strong middle class and the polarization in income levels between the different regions. The increasing polarization in the income levels of the various regions acts as the dominating trend of the growing economic inequality.References
Gaidar, Е. Т. et al. (1998). Ekonomika perekhodnogo perioda. Ocherki ekonomicheskoy politiki postkommunisticheskoy Rossii. [Economics of Transition. Essays on economic policy of post-communist Russia]. Moscow: Institute of Economy in Transition Publ., 1096.
Aslund, A., (2002). Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc. Cambridge University Press, 508.
Yavlinsky, G. A. (2003) Pereferiynyy kapitalizm. Lektsii ob ekonomicheskoy sisteme Rossii na rubezhe XX–XXI vv. [Peripheral capitalism. Lectures on the economic system of Russia at the turn of 20–21 centuries]. Moscow: Integral-Reform Publ., 159.
Nemtsov, B. E. (2010). Putin. Itogi. 10 let: nezavisimyy ekspertnyy doklad. [Putin. Results. 10 years: Independent expert report]. Retrieved from: http://www.putin-itogi.ru/doklad (date of access: 15.04.2016).
Guriev, S., Kachins, E. & Aslund, A., (2011). Rossiya posle krizisa [Russia after the crisis]. Moscow: Alpina Business Books, 394.
Shmelev, B. A. et al. (2009). Postsovetskoye prostranstvo: realii i perspektivy [Post-soviet area: realities and prospects]. Moscow: Institut ekonomiki RAN Publ., 462.
Glinkina, S. P. (2012). Modernizatsiya v stranakh rossiyskogo poyasa sosedstva: strukturnyy i tekhnologicheskiy aspekty [Modernization in countries of the Russian zone neighborhood: structural and technological aspects]. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya Publ, 278.
Vardomskiy, L. B. et al. (2012). Sotsialno-ekonomicheskoye razvitie postsovetskikh stran: itogi dvadtsatiletiya [Socio-economic development of the post-Soviet countries: outcome of the two decades]. Moscow: Institut economiki RAN Publ., 400.
Vardomskiy, L. B. & Pylin, A. G. (2014). Strukturno-ekonomicheskie izmeneniya v stranakh SNG v 1991–2012 gg: tendentsii i perspektivy [Structural and economic changes in the CIS countries in 1991–2012: trends and prospects]. Rossiya i sovremennyy mir [Russia and the modern world], 1(82), 102–115.
Glazyev, S. Y. (2009). Tamozhennyy soyuz Belarusii, Kazakhstana i Rossii: zapusk mehanizmov [The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia: the launch of mechanisms]. Rossiiskiy ekonomicheskiy zhurnal [Russian economic journal], 11–12, 46–59.
Glazyev, S. Y. (2011). Realnoye yadro postsovetskoy ekonomicheskoy integratsii: itogi sozdaniya i perspektivy razvitiya Tamozhennogo soyuza Belorussii, Kazakhstana i Rossii [The real core of the post-Soviet economic integration: the outcome of creation and prospects of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia]. Rossiyskiy ekonomicheskiy zhurnal [Russian economic journal], 6, 56–81.
Glazyev, S. Y. & Tkachuk, S. P. (2013). Perspektivy razvitiya Yevraziyskoy ekonomicheskoy integratsii: ot TS—EAP k EAS (kontseptualnyy aspekt) [Prospects of development of the Eurasian economic integration: from CU-UES to the EEU (the conceptual aspect)]. Rossiyskiy ekonomicheskiy zhurnal [Russian economic journal], 1, 3–12.
Glazyev, S. Y. & Vashanov, V. A. (2014). Perspektivy razvitiya integratsionnykh protsessov na postsovetskom prostranstve [Prospects of development of integration processes in the post-Soviet area]. Sovremennyye proizvoditelnyye sily [Modern productive forces], 1, 38–50.
Kosikova, L. S. (2008). Problemy konsolidatsii stran sodruzhestva vokrug Rossii v usloviyakh vnutrenney neodnorodnosti regiona SNG [The Problems of commonwealth consolidation around Russia under the conditions of the CIS region, the internal heterogeneity]. Rossiyskiy ekonomicheskiy zhurnal [Russian economic journal], 56, 31–44.
Furman, E. D. et al. (2009a). Integratsionnyye protsessy na postsovetskom prostranstve: problemy i tendentsii ikh razvitiya [Integration processes in the post-Soviet territory: problems and development trends]. Moscow: Institut ekonomiki RAN Publ., 330.
Bykov, A. N. (2009). Postsovetskoye prostranstvo: strategii integratsii i novyye vyzovy globalizatsii [The post-Soviet area: integration strategy and the new challenges of globalization]. St-Petersburg: Aleteya Publ., 192.
Vardomskiy, L. B. et al. (2010). Faktor sosedstva v ekonomicheskom razvitii prigranichnykh regionov stran SNG [Neighborhood factor in the economic development of border regions of the CIS countries]. Moscow: Institut ekonomiki RAN Publ., 426.
Vinokurov, E. Y. & Libman, A. M. (2013). Dve Evraziyskie integratsii [Two Eurasian integration]. Voprosy ekonomiki [Economic issues], 2, 47–72.
Tatarkin, A. I. et al. (2010). Innovatsionnoye razvitie regionov Rossii: teoriya, praktika, upravlenie [The innovative development of Russian regions: the theory, practice, management]. Moscow: Economika Publ., 241.
Chereshnev, V. A., Tatarkin, A. I., Glazev, S. Y. et al. (2011). Prognozirovanie sotsialno-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya regiona [Forecasting the socio-economic development of the region]. Ekaterinburg: Uralskoye otdelenie Instituta ekonomiki RAN Publ., 1104.
Tatarkin, A. I. et al. (2012). Regionalnaya promyshlennaya politika: ot makroekonomicheskikh usloviy formirovaniya k novym institutam razvitiya [Regional industrial policy: from macroeconomic conditions to the formation of new institutions]. Moscow: Economika Publ., 359.
Tatarkin, A. I. et al. (2013). Ispolzovanie klasternogo podkhoda v modernizatsii ekonomicheskogo prostranstva Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Using the cluster approach in the modernization of Russian economic regions]. Ekaterinburg: Uralskoye otdelenie Instituta ekonomiki RAN Publ., 535.
Suslov, V. I. et al. (2013). Strukturnaya i prostranstvenno-vremennaya dinamika regionalnykh sotsialno-ekonomicheskikh system [The structural and spatial-temporal dynamics of regional socio-economic systems]. Ekaterinburg: Uralskoye otdelenie Instituta ekonomiki RAN Publ., 501.
Couch, Ch., Karecha, J., Henning, N. & Deiter, R. (2005). Decline and Sprawl: An Evolving type of Urban Development — Observed in Liverpool and Leipzig. European Planning Studies, 13(1), 117–136.
Moss, T. (2008). Cold Spots of Urban Infrastructure: Shrinking Processes in Eastern Germany and the Modern Infrastructural Ideal. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(2), 436–451.
Yeakey, C. C., Thompson, V. S. & Wells, A. (2012). Urban Ills: Post Recession Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts. Lanham: Lexington Books, 325.
Rumpel, P., Slach, J. & Koutsk, J. (2013). Shrinking Cities and Governance of Economic Regeneration: The Case of Ostrava. Business Administration and Management, 1, 113–127.
Worldbank (1992). Russian Economic Reform. Crossing the Threshold of Structural Change, 127.
Pylin, A. G. (2013). Ekonomika postsovetskoy Gruzii: tendentsii i problemy [The economy of post-Soviet Georgia: trends and challenges]. Rossiyskiy ekonomicheskiy zhurnal [Russian economic journal], 1, 86–95.
Usievich, M. A. (2002). Desyatiletie reform v Vengrii. 90-e gody XX v. [A decade of reforms in Hungary. 90-ies of 20th century]. Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya [Modern and contemporary history], 5, 80–97.
31. Kulikova, N. V. (2013). Resultaty transformatsii v stranakh Tsentralnoy i Vostochnoy Evropy (obschestvenno-politicheskiy i ekonomicheskiy aspekty) [The results of the transformation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (the socio-political and economic aspects)]. Moscow: Institut economiki RAN Publ., 392.
Vardomskiy, L. B. et al. (2012). Novyye nezavisimyye gosudarstva: sravnitelnyye itogi sotsialno-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya [New independent states: comparative results of socio-economic development]. Moscow: Institut ekonomiki RAN Publ., 60.
Williamson, J. G. (1965). Regional Development and the Process of National Development: A Description of the Patterns. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 13, 1–84.
Hallet, M. (1997). National and Regional Development in Central and Eastern Europe: Implications for EU structural assistance. European Commission, 38.
Kagar, M. & Sinhuber, B. (2014). CEE — from Transition to Convergence. Getting started in the EU. Vienna, 47.
Mrak, M., Richter, S. & Szemler, T. Cohesion Policy as a Function of the EU Budget. A perspective from CEE Member States. Retrieved from: http://wiiw.ac.at/cohesion-policy-as-a-function-of-the-eu-budget-a-perspective-from-the-cee-member-states-dlp-3625.pdf (date of access: 05.04.2016).
Szemler, T. Regional Development and the EU Pre-Accession and Structural Funds. Trend and Possible Courses of Action. Retrieved from: http://mek.oszk.hu/03700/03767/03767.pdf (date of access: 25.03.2016).
Monastiriotis, V. Regional Growth Dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe. Retrieved from: http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/LEQS%20Discussion%20Paper%20Series/LEQSPaper33.pdf (date of access: 04.04.2016).
Isard, W. (1966). Metody regionalnogo analiza: vvedenie v nauku o regionakh [Methods of regional analysis: an introduction to the science of regions]. Moscow: Progress Publ., 660.
Chuanqi, H. et al. (2011). Obzornyy doklad o modernizatsii v mire i Kitaye (2001–2010) [A survey report on the modernization of the world and China (2001–2010)]. Мoscow: Ves Mir Publ., 256.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2016 A.A. Akayev, Yu. R. Ichkitidze, A.I. Sarygulov, V.N. Sokolov
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
