General issues in the transition from command to market economies

In late 1989 the world witnessed the stunning and unexpected collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, was unwilling to use force to preserve Soviet control over the East European Comecon countries. Indeed, towards the end of 1991 the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist. Gorbachev did not intend this to happen but, again, he did not try to preserve it by force.