Abstract

The collapse of centrally administered socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe initiated the movement from a centrally administered economy towards a market economy, commonly referred to as the transition process. The word ‘transition’, the passage from one state to another, might seem appropriate; nevertheless, it did not explicitly capture all the complexities involved. The transition process entailed superseding the essential properties of the centrally administered economy, consequently further destabilizing the former economic system, and replacing it with a market economy.