ABSTRACT
What kind of competition state actually emerged in the region? How did the state strategies evolve in the individual states? To what extent can we speak about convergence? Is the transformation region-specific? These questions need to be addressed in order to establish the explanandum, or the ‘dependent variable’, of this study dealing with convergence in state strategies in the V4. This chapter analyses the transformations of dominant state projects and strategies in the region. Employing the regulationist perspective, state intervention is analysed in relation to economic dynamics, or to its effects on the production and reproduction of the process of accumulation. Thus, I propose a periodization of dominant state and accumulation strategies with respect to their functional adequacy in relation to the dynamic of capitalist accumulation in the V4. This is important for understanding not only the constraints and opportunities policy-makers and other social actors faced but the structural transformation of major social forces.
