Central European Business Review, 2021 (vol. 10), issue 2
Editorial
Macroeconomic Trends among Visegrád Countries, EU Balkans, and the U.S., 1991-2021
Max Gillman
Central European Business Review 2021, 10(2):1-20 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.282 
The paper provides an introduction to the special issue. It shows a sense in which Visegrád and Balkan EU countries are correlated in macroeconomic performance and integrated with the global business cycles. Using inflation rate levels as a starting point to characterize when these countries began their transitions, it shows that after 1996 both real GDP growth and real interest rates move together to a significant degree both with each other and with the US. This provides a background from which to view the paths since the collapse of the Soviet Union that these transition economies have taken. In addition, comparison is made to US money and banking...
Discussion
The Tragedy of Transition: Development, Deterioration, Decay. The Case of Hungary, 1990-2020
Lajos Bokros
Central European Business Review 2021, 10(2):21-41 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.280
The essay is about the economic and political development of Hungary in the last 30 years. It can be neatly divided into three periods which coincide with the calendar decades almost perfectly. After the collapse of the communist system, the first period constituted a glorious decade in development: the first two governments implemented almost all indispensable structural reforms required for a successful transition. After the financial stabilization in 1995, a consistent macroeconomic policy was applied, leading to export and investment-driven, hence sustainable economic growth. The next decade brought deterioration: reforms were stalled, and a sharp...
Three Models of Post-Communist Transformation and Lessons Learned
Ivan Mikloš
Central European Business Review 2021, 10(2):43-61 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.277
The paper analyses the experience of post-communist transformation. It focuses on preconditions and causes of differences in the success of this process in different countries. The paper, in contrast to the traditional basic division of transformation strategies into gradualist and radical, brings a new perspective. Defining a third, spontaneous transformation trajectory, characteristic of countries unsuccessful in transformation. The paper also points to examples of the transition between individual transformation trajectories and strategies (especially on the example of Slovakia and Georgia).
The Antidemocratic Drift in the Early 21st Century: Some Thoughts on its Roots, Dynamics and Prospects
Marek Dabrowski
Central European Business Review 2021, 10(2):63-83 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.281
In the first two decades of the 21st century, the previous democratization progress was partly reversed. It is well seen in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe but also in other geographic regions. In search for causes of this warning trend, many authors point out economic factors such as economic stagnation, unemployment, inequality, consequences of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 and side-effects of globalization. Not negating the role of economic factors, it is important, however, to see noneconomic determinants such as immature political institutions and their dysfunctionality, nationalism and cultural prejudices, and...
The Sling Effect: Croatia and SEE After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Velimir Šonje
Central European Business Review 2021, 10(2):85-109 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.283
The concentration of real convergence in a short period before the Great Recession (2001-2008) is a characteristic shared by many countries, but it was particularly pronounced in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. Bulgaria managed to converge after the Great Recession, but convergence in other mentioned countries was meagre; Slovenia even diverged since 2010. Direct effects of post-Yugoslav wars belong to the past, but indirect effects may have had more persistent effects: a lost decade of the ’90s led to weak institutional development and the creation of the local form of state capitalism, which provides weak fundamentals...