ABSTRACT
Post-Soviet socio-political and economic transformations present a challenge for theories of modernization and development, as well as more general theoretical paradigms of social change. Modernization theory and World System theory are among the most influential theoretical approaches to the problem of socio-economic transformation. Both treat such transformations as movement from a traditional society to an industrial one. A main difference is that Modernization theory offers an optimistic model of transition from a traditional to an industrialized and modern social and economic system. The development of market structures after the collapse of the Soviet-Type Economy (STE) differs in pace and shape from one country to another. Theoretically, the importance of variations in the speed and shape of transitions is even more pronounced since it presents an opportunity for testing various theoretical approaches. There are three major intellectual traditions that attempt to establish general characteristics of socio-economic transformations as well as their causes and outcomes: Marxist, Utilitarian-Positivist, and Weberian.
