The article looks on the process of post-communist transition, from an institutional perspective. The author stresses that resources play a secondary role in explaining the transition, as opposed to the importance of an institutional framework that facilitates or hinders economic development. Different results owe to differences in the institutional construction, and more importantly, to differences in what the author calls civilizational fundamentals of liberty, law, order and trust. The main thesis is that these fundamentals are the legacy of our pre-communist past. Thus, the success or failure of the transition is accounted for by the pre-communist legacy, by the existence or the absence of the afore mentioned fundamentals. (Aura Matei presents)

To read: Jan Winiecki – Determinants of Catching Up or Falling Behind