Towards a New Economic Order in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Political changes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have created both the preconditions as well as the need for the transition from the old to a new economic order. In the absence of any ready substitute, the institutional vacuum which arose plunged the majority of these countries into economic chaos and anarchy. A way of arresting this continuing drift towards chaos and political discontent is not to be found by striving for the reintroduction of laissez‐faire. A new stable economic order can be established only on the precepts of a just society. Suggests two alternatives delegating decision making in the sphere of economics to groups and formations outside parliament, or establishing a socially reponsible free market economy. The transition process probably would go through the phases:from plan to anarchy to group control to legally constrained market control.