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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. Conclusions

Author : Liviu Damşa

Published in: The Transformation of Property Regimes and Transitional Justice in Central Eastern Europe

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This book commenced with an examination of the distinctiveness of the post-communist transformation of property within the general framework of transitional justice. It analysed the particularities of such transformation in post-communist societies, where the bulk of property had been owned or controlled by the state. It ends with several conclusions and suggestions for further research.

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previous chapter ‘Restitution in Action’ in Post-communist Central Eastern Europe. The Cases of Romania and Poland

Pogány (1997, 213).

Ibid.

Cohen and Schwartz (1994, 8).

Offe and Adler (1991), Ágh (1998, 49–82), Kuzio (2001).

See e.g. Balcerowicz (2009) (synthetic Tables 1 and 2) for the legal and institutional layers affected by this systemic change.

See e.g. Pridham (2005), Grabbe (2006), Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier (2005).

See e.g. supra, text to n 9–20 in Chap. 4.

Or similar mechanisms distributional of property employed by the post-communist governments to transform communist property into private property.

John Pickels, ‘Restructuring State Enterprises. Industrial geography and Eastern European transitions’, in Pickels and Smith (1998, 164–65).

Linz and Stepan (1996).

See e.g. Lipton et al. (1990), Blanchard and Layard (1991), Friedman and Rapaczynski (1994).

See e.g. Bockman and Eyal (2002, 338), Frank Bönker, Klaus Müller, Andreas Pickel, ‘Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Postcommunist Transformation: Context and Agenda’ in Bönker et al. (2003, 6).

Bockman and Eyal (2002), Eastern Europe as a Laboratory for Economic Knowledge: Bönker (2003).

See e.g. Gould (2003, 277).

See e.g. Bönker et al. (2003), Bockman and Eyal (2002). I used the label ‘Washington Consensus’ as a short cut for the dominant ideas resulting from the evolution of ideas about modernization and development in the 1980s.

See e.g. Bockman and Eyal (2002), for a description of the often ignored exchanges of ideas between East European and Western economists during the 1980s.

See e.g. Offe and Adler (1991, 869). But see Karl and Schmitter (2002), arguing that the post-communist democratic transitions were not conceptually different from the earlier, South European or Latin American democratic transitions.

Comisso (1991, 162).

Chua (2000).

See e.g. supra, text to n 43–46 in Chap. 2.

For examples of arguments derived directly from the classical liberal theory in favor of private property developed by post-communist legislatures and constitutional courts, Kuti (2009, 11, 29 and 52–53).

Persky (2010), Carter (1989).

See e.g. Berend (2009, 76–8).

David Lane, ‘Introduction: Two Outcomes of Transformation’ in Lane (2007, 9).

See e.g. Adam (1999, 124).

This in a period when large swaths of East Europeans population consistently linked democracy with economic prosperity, and conceived a democratic nation as one in which the state promotes economic prosperity and ensures that basic needs are met. See e.g. McIntosh et al. (1993, 1994), showing that in 1992 and 1993 surveys, “economic prosperity in the country” was identified as the most important feature of a democracy by 41 % of respondents in Poland, 35 % in Hungary, and 32 % in Russia, in contrast to similar identification by 9, 11, and 5 % of the respondents in Britain, France, and West Germany.

See e.g. Berent (2009, 76, 171); Tsuneaki Sato, ’Convergence and Divergence in Transformation: Comparison of Experiences of CEECs and China’ in Ichimura et al. (2009, 12–13).

Bönker et al. (2003, 3).

Kikeri and Nellis (2004, 87–118, 92).

Bönker et al. (2003, 19).

Ibid.

Krever (2011), Faundez ‘Rule of Law or Washington Consensus’ in Kessaris (2009).

See e.g. Trubek and Santos (2006, 1–95), Gordon and Sylvester (2004), Crouch (2011).

See e.g. supra, text to n 135–141 in Chap. 2 (two).

See e.g. Markovits (2007, 236), showing the degree of similarity of formal Soviet Law even under Stalin with the Western Law in matters related to property, contracts and corporations. The fascination of neoliberals and of neoliberal dogma with the ‘firms’ is well-documented. See e.g. Crouch (2011), esp. Chap. 3 and 4.

See e.g. Åslund (2007).

Even if private property had generally enjoyed a lower degree of protection than state owned property, from the socialist’s law standpoint.

Bönker et al. (2003, 17); The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development Transition Report 1999, 32–34.

Tucker et al. (2004).

Ibid.

Tucker et al. (2004), Holmes (1993).

See e.g. Appel (2001, 530–40). Schwartz (2006, 13–14), Altshuler (2001).

See e.g. Schwartz (2006), Shelley (1995).

See e.g. Holmes (1999, 3–4), for a list of cases from all the former CEE communist countries; e Holmes (1997, 280–2), Celarier (1997).

Schwartz (2006), for a list of the influential economists who started to question the Washington Consensus in the wake of the Czech and Russian scandals.

See e.g. Holmes (1999).

Wedel (2012).

Vachudova (2009). Also Eva G. Heidbreder, ‘Anticorruption: Outsourcing Responsibility’ in Heidbreder (2011, 139–159), for a review of the anticorruption framework in both the pre-accession and post-accession phases.

Vachudova (2009).

See e.g. European Commission (2008) ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Progress in Romania/Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’, COM(2008) 494/495 final, 23 July 2008; European Commission (2009) ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Progress in Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’, COM(2009) 402 final, 22 July 2009; European Commission (2010) ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Progress in Bulgaria/Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’, COM(2010) 400/401 final, 20 July 2010. Vachudova and Spendzharova (2012).

See e.g. Sajó (2003).

Arikan (2008).

Ibid.

See e.g. Stuckler et al. (2009). Also Stuckler et al. (2012), for a review of the literature on the subject; Wucherpfennig and Deutsch (2009) arguing that that socio-economic development of the kind impeded by large privatisation policies, tends to bring about stable democracy; Lawrence King and David Stuckler, ‘Mass Privatization and the Post-communist Mortality Crisis,’ in Lane (2007, 197–218).

See Janine R. Wedel, ‘Blurring the State-Private Divide: Flex Organisations and the Decline of Accountability’ in Spoor (2004, 217–235), Wedel (2005, 2003).

See e.g. Rupnik (2007), Greskovits (2007).

See e.g. Ágh (2012, 2010).

Ágh (2010, 75). Also, a Ágh (2009).

Ágh (2012).

Ágh (2010, 76).

Ágh (2010), Ágh (2012). This increased erosion of the popularity of the western European political parties is well described by the late Mair (2013), although the CEE countries never had, post 1989 political parties with the level of popular support common for Western Europe political parties in the 1950s through 1970s.

See e.g. Kurkchiyan (2011), contrasting the lack of faith in the political system and in law in Poland and Bulgaria with the different perceptions of law and political systems in England and Norway; Marina Kurkchiyan, ’The Illegitimacy of Law in Post-Soviet Societies, in Galligan and Kurkchiyan (2003)

Sedelmeier (2008), showing that CEE states outperformed old members in aligning their law with the EU law. But see Falkner (2010) showing that in matters related to the EU social standards, EU directives tend to be transposed in a politicised mode although timely and correctly, and there is frequent non-compliance at the later stages of monitoring and enforcement.

See e.g. text to n 24–25 (Introduction).

Ibid. Also, Macklem (2005), Pogány (2010).

Heller (1998, 2013).

Heller (1998). Heller also argues that the tragedy of anticommons is not solely characteristic to post-communist contexts.

See e.g. supra, text to n 101–108 in Chap. 7.

Pogány (1997).

Legislation’s compliance with the formal justice requirements constitutes a part of what is called ‘rule of law.’ See e.g. Fuller (1963), Kuti (2009).

See e.g. supra, text to n 194 in Chap. 5.

See e.g. Upchurch (2012, 112–29).

See e.g. Kattel and Raudla (2013), Myant et al. (2013), Thorhallsson and Kattel (2013), Lütz and Kranke (2014), Woolfson (2010). One could also link the ‘populist’ and antidemocratic backslide in CEE noticed in the scholarship (see e.g. Pogány (2013), Scheppele in Von Bogdandy and Sonnevend (2015), Sólyom (2015), Perju (2015), Von Bogdandy and Sonnevend (2015)) to the increased contestation of the neoliberal policies of the first two decades of transition, in the wake of the global economic downturn.

Ellison (2006).

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Title: Conclusions
Author: Liviu Damşa
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: The Transformation of Property Regimes and Transitional Justice in Central Eastern Europe
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48528-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-48530-0

Copyright Year: 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48530-0_8

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