Governance Failure and Reform Attempts After the Global Economic Crisis of 2008/09: Case Studies from Central and Eastern Europe

The global economic crisis of 2008/2009 has had a broad impact far beyond economic concerns. Most importantly, it has been seen as a crisis of governance and debates have not just questioned specific regulations, e.g. of global financial markets, but have additionally challenged the appropriateness of underlying governance concepts not only in global markets, but also at the national level.

For the post-socialist countries, which adopted market-oriented governance mechanisms less than two decades ago, the global crisis was the first stress test after the post-socialist recovery. The contributions in this book focus on the impact of the crisis and related reform attempts in two important areas. The first area is financial and monetary policy, which is at the core of the global crisis of 2008/2009. The second area is relations between business and state actors, where corruption and weak institutional frameworks can both seriously hamper reform attempts.

The volume comprises essential contributions on how the post-socialist countries have tried to cope with the first global economical crisis they saw themselves confronted with.

Dr. Heiko Pleines is head of the Department of Politics and Economics of the Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa) and lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Bremen, Germany. His major research interest is the role of non-state actors in political decision-making processes and the resulting impact on political regimes.