ABSTRACT
If the system-related (institutional) dimension of transition2 is of paramount importance, one can detect another meaning, which transgresses ideological borders and has defined the evolution of these societies through this century. I refer to what can be named 'the quest for catching-up with the West', an idea which obsessed national politicians during the inter-war period and also the communist leaderships bent on proving the alleged superiority of their system and which, today, is reflected in the ardent desire to join the European Union. For example, in pre-communist Romania both the Liberal Party and the Peasant Party wanted to get the country moving, to get it away from her economically peripheral position in Europe; to this end they propounded different policies. The Liberals favoured protection of industry and state involvement in the economy, thinking more in terms of what one, today, would call dynamic comparative advantages and strategic industrial policy.3 They feared foreign encroachment on the emerging Romanian industrial sectors and the marginalisation of the national entrepreneurial class, whereas the Peasants espoused an 'open doors' policy.4 This conceptual and policy divide was not uncommon in the region at that time and was made more clear by the consequences of the Great Depression. As for the Romanian communist leadership, it viewed the catching-up issue in relation to both the main capitalist countries and the more advanced economies of the Moscow-led Bloc. The industrialisation drive in the post-war period was justified not only in ideological terms, but was also linked to national assertiveness among fellow communist countries, in particular, and among the other nations of the world, in general.
