Pop, Liliana (2001) The political economy of transformation in Romania, 1989-2001. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the choice for a market
economy and democracy by these societies was the beginning of a vast process of change
that affected all aspects of social life. In spite of the simultaneity of these changes, and the
general realisation that integrative approaches are needed to do justice to this complexity,
most scholarly analyses remain confined within existing disciplinary boundaries such as
Economics and Politics. In this thesis, reflexive theories in Economics, Politics and
International Political Economy are used to derive a set of working hypotheses about the
relationships between the economic and political spheres, domestic and international.
These hypotheses are then used to illuminate the empirical case of marketisation in
Romania. The dominant neo-Iiberal explanations about the meaning and direction of postcommunist
changes created a hierarchy of performance (i.e. conformity with the neoliberal
ideals) between the countries of CEE. In this reading, Romania was a laggard in
'transition' and this was attributed to the incomplete democratisation of the political
system and the neo-comrnunist and nationalistic ideology of the 1990-6 governments.
The analysis proposed in this thesis challenges this simplistic explanation and the content
and pace of economic reforms in Romania are linked to four factors. These are the fragile
political consensus around reform; the structural power of industrial interests and their
ability to co-opt factions of the political elite; the weak institutional basis; and the cultural
gap between the expectations of the public and the requirements of a market economy.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DR Balkan Peninsula
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Romania -- Politics and government -- 1989-, Romania -- Economic conditions -- 1989-
Official Date:	October 2001
Dates:	Date Event October 2001 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Higgott, Richard A. ; Scholte, Jan Aart
Sponsors:	Romania. Ministerul Educației si Cercetării [Ministry of Education and Research] ; University of Warwick ; Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom ; Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) ; Central European University
Extent:	viii, 296 leaves
Language:	eng

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