ABSTRACT
Comparative assessment of the transitions suggests instead that economic turbulence, tentative political accords, and qualified military withdrawals from politics will continue to dominate the policy agendas of most of the countries for the foreseeable future. In East-Central Europe and Southern Cone South America, democratic transitions and market liberalization are already well underway—at least in the sense of producing governments determined by regularly held open elections and economic policies linked to state shrinking and privatization, despite difficult economic and social conditions. In contrast, in Southeastern Europe, the legacies of economic underdevelopment, authoritarianism, and xenophobic nationalism remain great. In Eastern Europe, the emphasis on mass industrialization under centrally-planned economies began to run into more and more difficulties in the late 1960s, for which there was pressure for economic and political reform. The economic prescriptions spelled out for restructuring these economies and moving them toward more dynamic markets are strikingly similar.
