Östeuropas positiva förvandling

I den nya utgåvan av Foreign Affairs finns en intressant och läsvärd analys av vad som egentligen hänt under de senaste 25 åren i Östeuropa.

Författare till essän är Andrei Shleifer, ekonomiprofessor på Harvard, och Daniel Treisman, statsvetarprofessor på UCLA och författare till boken The Return: Russia’s Journey From Gorbachev to Medvedev. 

Deras slutsats är värd uppmärksamma eftersom inte minst den svenska mediebilden ser ganska annorlunda ut:

The transition has had its disappointments. But overall, the changes since 1989 have been an outstanding success. It is time to rethink the misperception of this period. Market reforms, attempts to build democracy, and struggles against corruption did not fail, although they remain incomplete. The claim that a gradual path of economic reform would have been more effective and less painful is contradicted by the evidence. The postcommunist transition does not reveal the inadequacy of liberal capitalism or the dysfunctions of democracy. Rather, it demonstrates the superiority and continuing promise of both.