The tax burden - a measure of the state's immersion in the economy -
still equals more than two fifths of gross domestic product in all
members of the European Union. The countries in transition - from
Russia to Bulgaria and from Estonia to Hungary - are way more
economically liberal today than France, Germany and even Britain - let
alone the nations of Scandinavia.
An increasingly united Europe has opted for "capitalism with a human
face" - the democratic isotope of socialism (sometimes with a touch
of corporatism). But it now faces the challenge of the Anglo-Saxon
variety of the free market. Nowhere is this ideological altercation
more evident than in the countries formerly behind the iron curtain.
Long before Enron and World.com, the tech bubble and Wall Street's
accounting frauds and pernicious conflicts of interest - transition has
exposed the raw and vulnerable nerves running through the foundations
of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Eastern Europe is a monument to the folly of
unmitigated and unbridled freemarketry.
Transition has given economists a rare chance to study capitalism and
economic policies from scratch. What's more important - free markets,
institutions, education, democracy, or capital? Central and east Europe
became a giant lab in which to peruse policies pertaining to
criminality, private property ownership, entrepreneurship,
privatization, income distribution, employment, inflation and social
welfare.
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