Describes how private-sector management strategies can help governments obtain greater access to global resources, create more jobs, and provide better social services to their citizens.

This volume reports the proceedings of a conference of highly qualified practitioners and theorists from East and West, dealing with competition and the important part it plays as an essential element of the market economic system. So far, in the countries of Central and East Europe and of the former USSR, privatisation of state enterprises has failed to bring about a more responsive, more competitive behaviour of these firms. It is recognised that various elements of competition - privatisation, breaking down of monopolies, trade liberalisation, strengthening of small- and medium-sized competitors; and institutional requirements - should be implemented simultaneously.

The wide variation in transition economies raises questions about differences in economic growth, the applicability of transition policies, and the advantages of economic reform. This report seeks to answer these questions.

For over a decade, central and eastern Europe has been at the center of one of the most profound economic and political transformation in history. At the start of the 1990's, the region embarked on an ambitious reform program to depart from central planning towards more market-based economies. A decade later, and amid significant difficulties, the region has achieved remarkable accomplishments, with several countries becoming increasingly integrated into the global economy. Political structures have been transformed and new institutions have emerged. Indeed, the progress in structural reforms achieved in the region has been so substantial that several countries are now at the threshold of European Union membership. Aware of the significance of the successful integration of central and eastern Europe into the global economy, the World Economic Forum and Harvard University are proud to introduce The European Competitiveness and Transition Report, a thorough review of the transition process that has unfolded in the last decade. This comprehensive report presents new data and expert commentary on what the facts say about the enlargement of the European Union and the competitiveness and growth potential of both Europe and the candidate countries. It addresses the many important factors that will determine how these countries will fare in terms of economic growth over the next ten to twenty years. Written by independent experts, The European Competitiveness and Transition Report 2001-2002 is a truly unique data-driven guide that lays out the facts and reveals the real issues behind European enlargement.

Integrating transition economies into the global commercial and trade market system is a prolonged and risky process. This book is a collection of studies dealing with the different issues related to the liberalization of external relations in economies moving from a socialist to a market-based system The focus is on external sector developments, and the topics deal with balance of payments conditions, exchange rate policies and regimes, international competitiveness, international capital flows, trade, and other matters related to the integration of transition economies into the world economy. An understanding of the principles involved and of the experiences of both transition and advanced economies during this process is crucial to ensure its ultimate success. Written by internationally recognized scholars, the chapters cover these issues in a systematic manner. The first section treats current account developments, capital flows, and exchange rate policies in transition countries, the second section deals with specific issues related to international trade, and the final section consists of six specific country experiences. In this final section, a chapter dealing with the Russian Federation discusses the collapse of the ruble in August 1998.

Examines the institutional developments in 28 transition economies over the past two decades and concludes that, contrary to popular belief, institutions were not neglected; while personalities mattered as much as policies for outcomes, getting the basic institutions right was the most important aspect of a successful transition.

This collection emphasizes a cross-disciplinary approach to the problem of scale, with essays ranging in subject matter from literature to film, architecture, the plastic arts, philosophy, and scientific and political writing. Its contributors consider a variety of issues provoked by the sudden and pressing shifts in scale brought on by globalization and the era of the Anthropocene, including: the difficulties of defining the concept of scale; the challenges that shifts in scale pose to knowledge formation; the role of scale in mediating individual subjectivity and agency; the barriers to understanding objects existing in scalar realms different from our own; the role of scale in mediating the relationship between humans and the environment; and the nature of power, authority, and democracy at different social scales.

At the end of the "founding" or initial decade, the new parliaments of post-Communist Europe had developed two distinct types: democratic and presidentially-dominated. Whilst in the early years, they had been characterised as "parliaments in adolescence," they have - through the second decade - continued to improvise but also elaborate their working relationships with both their chief executives and electorates. This book examines these adaptations in seven parliaments, comparing both among them and with parliaments of west Europe. Their changes are traced through four distinct sets in context, members, internal structure, and working relationship with the executive. This research develops a common perspective for our understanding of both new and developed legislatures by tracing the steps through which new parliaments begin, adapt and become established. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Legislative Studies.

Democratic transitions have occurred in many countries in various regions across the globe, such as Southern Europe, Latin America, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and these nations have undergone simuntaneously political, economic and social transformations. Yet, the patterns and characteristics of transitions have varied significantly, and different modes of transition have resulted in different outcomes. This book offers cross-national comparisons of democratic transition since the turn of the twentieth century and asks what makes democracies succeed or fail. In doing so it explores the influence the mode of transition has on the longevity or durability of the democracy, by theoretically examining and quantitatively testing this relationship. The authors argue that the mode of transition directly impacts the success and failure of democracy, and suggest that cooperative transitions, where opposition groups work together with incumbent elites to peacefully transition the state, result in democracies that last longer and are associated with higher measures of democratic quality. Based on a cross-national dataset of all democratic transitioning states since 1900, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international politics, comparative politics and democracy, and democratization studies.

Competition, competitiveness, innovation and growth are inherently linked. This book covers the main ideas underlying competitiveness and its applications, drawing lessons for developing economies and relevant policy recommendations.