ABSTRACT

Tracing the roots of the initial analytical conceptualization of the happenings in Central Eastern Europe indicated that the initial circumstance must be a critical consideration, given further shifts in theorizing the changes. In post-communist societies, much more fundamental simultaneity was at stake – even as far as the actual 'democratization' was concerned – in that the institutional shift to a democratic frame was quite an obvious and essentially unavoidable step following the disintegration of the communist regimes. The contested and uncertain focal point of the change was in the arena of economic undertakings. The unfolding economic changes became the key battleground, even if perhaps in the guise of pluralist political contestation. In the explanatory frame of transition, post-communist societies breaking off from their authoritarian/totalitarian past – due to a certain institutional loosening – emerge as suitable terrain for erecting 'capitalism by design'. Proponents of 'transformation' find in this core theme fuel for their criticisms.