Overview of varieties of capitalism classifications in countries from Central and Eastern Europe

What is it about?

The transformation of the economic system, underaken by the countries from the Central and Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, etc.) since 1990, from a central planning economy (former socialist economic system) to a market-based economy (capitalist economic system) was a very complex and daunting endeavor. This paper critically evaluates the classifications proposed by Coates [2000, 2006], Hall and Soskice [2001], and Amable [2003] concerning the “comparative capitalisms” literature stream. It is argued that these classifications are unsuitable to effectively evaluate the progress made by the transition countries since 1990 to establish a free market economic system. This is because these theoretical models were developed to assess the performance and growth of mature market-based capitalist countries and not emerging, or developing nations (i.e. factor- or efficiency-driven economies). From this point of reference, a recent classification developed by Myant and Drahokoupil [2011, 2015] is discussed and evaluated. These authors distinguished five ideal models (i.e. “varieties of capitalism”) that have evolved in transition countries from the Central and Eastern Europe since 1990. In conclusion to this paper, some key areas are highlighted that may be investigated by scholars in their future research projects.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

In-depth literature reviews or empirical papers concerning the comparison of the development of different types of economic systems (e.g. different varieties of the capitalist system) are scarce. This paper discusses and critically evaluates several popular classifications of capitalist economic systems found around the world. It is grounded within the "varieties of capitalism" (VoC) economic literature stream. The content of this paper may be useful to undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students who wish to carry out empirical research projects concerning the evaluation of different economic systems in terms of their current performance, progress made over time. This paper may also serve as a useful resource for researchers interested in making international comparisons of countries that adopted different economic systems.