Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Former State Socialist Societies

Abstract

The transformation of the former state socialist societies involved the introduction of capitalism from above. The current ‘varieties of capitalism’ debate focuses on developed high income capitalist countries, whereas the former state socialist countries come from a low economic base and are in the process of capitalist formation. It is contended that, while levels of capital accumulation are very low, a modern capitalist system of the continental type characterises one group of central European societies. This group approaches the levels of OECD countries with respect to marketisation and has a positive participation in the global economy. A second, relatively poor and weakly coordinated, cluster has the characteristics of low income, primary sector exporting countries, with a very low integration into the global economy. This group is characterised as a hybrid state/market uncoordinated type of market capitalism. A third, relatively coherent, cluster has high levels of state control, relatively little privatisation and an undeveloped market.