Abstract

While many observers thought it was premature for Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus to suggest in 1995 the transition was over except for fine-tuning, ² nearly 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall it is worth asking the question again. The main contribution of this chapter is to show that, for all practical purposes, the post-communist transition is over in most of the early reformers of Central Europe and the Baltic states; but it is not over for other transition countries – though many are well advanced, and only three or four remain far behind. The reasons why some are still lagging behind are not investigated, save for a few telegraphic remarks.