External Policy Transfer and Economic Growth: Reconceptualizing External Influences

Abstract

The previous chapters looked in detail at the domestic institutional factors determining the emerging type of capitalism — the relationships between state, labour and capital — and their impact on economic performance in CEECs throughout the past decade. Moreover, the empirical analysis on Romania carried out in the previous chapter showed that, although sharing features common to all three major capitalist systems, the emerging type of capitalism in Romania never managed to emulate the efficient mechanisms of the main models of capitalism at work in developed economies. The emerging Romanian system of ‘cocktail capitalism’ was a model of partial reforms and malfunctioning institutions. Instead of creating incentives and political support for further reforms and the emergence of growth-oriented elites, it maintained the mechanisms for private rent-seeking and clientelistic reallocation of assets.