Property Rights, Private Sector and Public Attitudes toward Institutional change *

On economic theory grounds, especially neo-institutional economic theory grounds, there has never been any doubt as to the crucial role of the private sector – in fact: of the dominance of the private sector – for the market economy. Nor there have been any doubts harboured about the need for the well designed and secure property rights. [On these points, see, e.g., Pejovich, 1990]. Nor there were any doubts on historical grounds. No society ever succeeded in building a capitalist market economy (and there has never been any other than capitalist market economy) without the dominant private sector. To use the expression of this author, there is no capitalism without capitalists [Winiecki, 1990].