ABSTRACT
Nowhere in the world could neoliberal ideology and practice win so radically
and quickly against competing paradigms as in the former state socialist coun-
tries of Eastern Europe. Poland was the starting point with its implementation of
the ‘shock-therapy’ reform package, the Balcerowicz Plan, on 1 January 1990.
Other countries in the region quickly followed, and, no matter whether their
reforms were located on the more radical or more gradual end of the reform
spectrum, altogether the East European transformation constituted the most
dramatic period of liberalization in economic history (Murrell 1996).
