The New Eastern Europe

With this paper, the RIIA makes its initial contribution to the fast-moving debate on Western policy responses to political and economic reform in the East. Concentrating on East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the paper looks at the process of moving from a command economy to a market-orientated economy, and reviews the constraints faced by these countries in making such a transition (political, legal, managerial and structural). The aim of the study is to provide a framework in which to evaluate the appropriateness of the various actual and potential responses available to Western policy-makers. It thus attempts to specify those tendencies and processes that the West should encourage, to analyze the constraints in the West, and to identify the scope for division of labour among Western countries and groupings.