A New Political Economy of Central Europe

In recent years the global power shift has often hit the headlines and Europe has regularly been featured as a declining region that is expected to lose economic and political importance in the decades to come. But despite negative public opinion, the EU has remained one of the most important economic and political powers in the world. The EU has successfully undergone several phases of transformation in its history. One of the greatest of such transformations was the “big bang” enlargement in 2004. After 1990 Central European countries embarked on a road of economic and political transition, which took place at different speeds. The states concerned began integrating into the EU and joined NATO, but after twenty five years of economic and political integration most of these countries are still heavily marked by distinctively Central European characteristics in comparison with Western Europe and North America. This paper hypothesizes that one of the most important reasons behind the prevalence of these distinctive Central European characteristics lies in the fact that economic and political institutions are interconnected differently in this region. (Click on the picture!)