ABSTRACT
People and organizations use networks everywhere, but they use them more in communist and postcommunist countries than in capitalist countries. People relied on network capital more in Eastern European communist countries than they did in the developed capitalist countries of Western Europe and North America. The scope and role of network capital varies among societies: It is a simultaneous function of its culture, its past and present social organization, and the changing socioeconomic situation. Postcommunism has not only produced a rather incomplete shift from state distributions to market exchanges. In the early stages of postcommunism, privatization has offered a unique and temporary occasion to make a fortune because the rules of the game are uncertain and changing. There is more network capital under communism than under capitalism, and there is even more under postcommunism than under communism. Compared to using markets or accessing state resources, networks often are more easily and quickly accessible, less costly, and more effective.
