East-Central Europe (Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia—ECE) is one of the least known parts of the world in English-language geography. In spite of its proximity to Western Europe and the European Community (EC) it has received a very modest amount of attention from English-speaking geographers compared with that from German-speaking and French-speaking colleagues. Studies of political and economic geography of the ECE are also hampered by the lack of appropriate methodology and theory. Some of the most important issues involved lie in the economic sphere of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. In the current paper, an attempt is made to survey and evaluate the size and character of existing debt stocks owed to the West by ECE and then to assess their likely impact on the political and economic geography of Europe and the EC. It is concluded that the international financial community is making it politically difficult for the countries in the region to persist with their structural reforms and stabilization policies. The future political and economic geography of ECE and EC depends, to a large extent, on the ability of the Western financial system to respond to the long-term needs of the region.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdamJ, 1989Economic Reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the 1960s (Macmillan, London)
2.
AdelmanI, 1990, “Lewis, W., Arthur lecture—Should there be a Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe”Review of Black Political Economy1917–42
3.
AshT G, 1990, “Mitteleuropa?”Daedalus1191–21
4.
BattJ, 1991East Central Europe from Reform to Transformation (Frances Pinter, London)
5.
BIS, 1991Bank for International Settlements: International Banking and Financial Market Developments (Bank for International Settlements, Basle)
6.
BladesD, (Ed.), 1991Statistics for a Market Economy (OECD, Paris)
7.
BradshawM J, 1990, “New regional geography, foreign area studies and perestroika”Area22315–322
8.
DahrendorfR, 1990Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (Chatto and Windus, London)
9.
EberstadtN N, 1991, “How not to aid Eastern Europe”Commentary9224–30
10.
EchiksonW, 1990Lighting the Night (Sidgwick and Jackson, London)
11.
FarekJ, 1990, “The foreign debt of Eastern-European countries and international stability”Politicka Ekonomie381401–1403
12.
GibbR AMichalakW Z, 1992, “The European Community and Central Europe: Prospects for political and economic integration”Geography77 in press
13.
GomułkaS, 1982, “The Polish crisis: Will it spread and what will be the outcome?”, in Crisis in the East European Economy: The Spread of the Polish Disease Ed. DrewnowskiJ, (Croom Helm, Andover, Hants) pp 65–71
14.
HallD R, 1990, “Introduction: Geographic dimensions of change”Geography75239–244
15.
HamiltonF E I, 1990a, “COMECON: Dinosaur in a dynamic world”Geography75244–246
16.
HamiltonF E I, 1990b, “A global region in the melting-pot?”GeoForum21145–161
17.
HillRZielonkaJ, 1990Restructuring Eastern Europe (Edward Elgar, Aldershot, Hants)
18.
IMF, 1991World Economic Outlook, May 1991 (International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC)
19.
JȩdrychowskiS, 1982Zadłużenie Polski w krajach kapitalistycznych (Polish Debt in Capitalist Countries) (Ksiazka i Wiedza, Warsaw)
20.
KaleckiM, 1963Zarys Teorii Wzrostu Gospodarki Socialistycznej (Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw)
21.
KorbońskiA, 1989, “The politics of economic reforms in Eastern Europe: The last thirty years”Soviet Studies411–19
22.
KornaiJ, 1980Economics of Shortage (North-Holland, Amsterdam)
23.
LangeO, 1961Teoria Reprodukcji i Akumulacji (Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw)
24.
MarerPSiwińskiW, (Eds), 1988Creditworthiness and Reform in Poland: Western and Polish Perspectives (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN)
25.
MichalakW ZGibbR A, 1992, “Political geography and eastern Europe”Area24 in press
26.
MNB, 1991aNegyedéves Tájékoztató (quarterly), Magyar Nemzeti Bank (National Bank of Hungary), Budapest
27.
MNB, 1991bAnnual Report, 1990 Magyar Nemzeti Bank (National Bank of Hungary), Information Department, Budapest
28.
MyantM, 1989The Czechoslovak Economy 1948–1988 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
29.
NBP, 1991Miesiȩczny Biuletyn Informacyjny (quarterly), Narodowy Bank Polski (National Bank of Poland), Warsaw
30.
NFAC, 1980, “Estimating Soviet and East European hard currency debt”, RP-ER-80-10327 (National Foreign Assessment Centre, Washington, DC)
31.
NorthR N, 1987, “Current developments in transport and traffic between the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe”, in Transport and Economic Development–Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Eds TismerJ FAmblerJSymonsL, (Duncker and Humblot, Berlin) pp 270–291
32.
NoveAHochmanH-HSeidenstecherG, (Eds), 1982The East European Economies in the 1970s (Butterworth, Sevenoaks, Kent)
33.
OECD, 1990aExternal Debt Statistics (OECD, Paris)
34.
OECD, 1990bOECD Economic Outlook number 47, June (OECD, Paris)
35.
OECD, 1991aFinancial Market Trends number 48 (OECD, Paris)
36.
OECD, 1991b, “The transition to a market economy”OECD Observer1695–10
37.
OECD, 1991cOECD Economic Outlook number 49 (OECD, Paris)
38.
O'LoughlinJ, 1990, “Political geography: Attempting to understand a changing world order”Progress in Human Geography14420–437
39.
PhillipsP, 1990, “The debt crisis and change in Eastern Europe”Monthly Review4119–27
40.
PortesR, 1977East–West Capital Flows: Dependence, Interdependence and Policy seminar paper 724, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm
41.
PortesR, 1980, “Effects of the world economic crisis on the east European economies”World Economy313–52
42.
SachsJ, 1992Accelerating Privatisation in Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland (The World Bank, Washington, DC)
43.
SBC, 1991, “External debt in convertible and nonconvertible currencies, 1985–1990”, mimeograph, Státní Banka Československá (National Bank of Czechoslovakia), Prague Schröder K, 1991, “Western financial assistance for reforms in Eastern Europe: Conditions and risks”Aussen Politik42326–335
44.
SiebertH, 1991, “German unification: The economics of transition”Economic Policy13287–340
45.
StelzerI M, 1990, “A Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe”Commentary8917–22
46.
ThriftN J, 1990, “The perils of the international financial system”Environment and Planning A221135–1136
47.
TurnockD, 1984, “Postwar studies on the human geography of Eastern Europe”Progress in Human Geography8315–346
48.
TurnockD, 1989Eastern Europe: An Economic and Political Geography (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Andover, Hants)
49.
WinieckiJ, 1988The Distorted World of the Soviet-type Economies (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Andover, Hants)
50.
Zloch-ChristyL, 1987Debt Problems of Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
51.
Zloch-ChristyL, 1991East–West Financial Relations: Current Problems and Future Prospects (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
