ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the emerging crime problems of the Czech Republic through the lens of social capital theory. The Czech Republic is at the leading edge of rapid changes that are transforming the former socialist societies of East and Central Europe. The journey "from capitalism to capitalism" has been especially painful in relative terms for the Czech people. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reports that the Czech Republic "has developed a private sector which accounts for the largest share of Gross domestic product among transition economies and has successfully reoriented exports towards western countries." The tendency of authoritarian-centralistic bureaucracies to override the rule of law was associated in Czechoslovakia as well as elsewhere in Eastern Europe with tight linkages between the state and economic organizations. The political and industrial elite that governed before the transition was more internally differentiated in Czechoslovakia than in other Soviet satellite states.
