Networks and Institutions in Europe's Emerging MarketsDo ties between political parties and businesses harm or benefit the development of market institutions? The post-communist transition offers an unparalleled opportunity to explore when and how networks linking the polity and the economy support the development of functional institutions. A quantitative and qualitative analysis covering eleven post-socialist countries combined with detailed case studies of Bulgaria, Poland and Romania documents how the most successful post-communist countries are those in which dense networks link politicians and businesspeople, as long as politicians are constrained by intense political competition. This combination allowed Poland to emerge with stable institutions while Bulgaria demonstrates that in developing economies intense political competition alone is harmful in the absence of dense personal and ownership networks. Indeed, as Romania illustrates, networks are so critical that their weakness is not mitigated even by low political competition. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Books Online and via Knowledge Unlatched. |
Contents
Approaches to institution building | 29 |
When broad networks increase cooperation | 55 |
Figures | 60 |
1 | 70 |
Tracing ownership networks | 84 |
1 | 88 |
When uncertainty increases cooperation | 131 |
Tracing elite career networks | 145 |
1 | 153 |
Institutional development in new democracies | 167 |
political varieties of capitalism in emerging markets | 185 |
200 | |
216 | |
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Common terms and phrases
actors alliances analysis argued argument asset diversity banks broad networks Bucharest Bulgaria Bulgarian Socialist Party Bulgartabac business groups business leaders business organizations businesspeople capital Capital Weekly captured career chapter cluster coalition collective action companies context coordinate corruption countries created Czech Republic Democratic dominant dynamic EBRD election electoral embeddedness emerged example family firms financial firms foreign funds Gazprom Gudzowaty impact individuals industrial firms influence institutional development interests investment investors Ivan Kostov Jan Kulczyk June levels of uncertainty lobbying managers minister Ministry Morck and Yeung narrow networks network structure owners ownership concentration ownership networks ownership structure party finance party system patronage percent Poland Polish political actors political elites political parties political uncertainty politicians post-communism post-communist post-socialist reform restructuring result role Romania shareholders shares shift social socialist Sofia stakeholders state-owned strategy transformation transition types voucher privatization Warsaw