Central and Eastern Europe: Shapes of Transformation, Crisis and the Possible Futures

This chapter offers a broad picture of transformations in the former socialist countries now passing under the rubric of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). These countries have very different histories, and the chapter shows that divergence has continued since the end of communist rule. The global financial crisis seems to have driven these divergences even further. Examined here is a surprisingly rapid and deep “Europeanization” of most CEE countries, if anything accelerated by their response to the crisis, as it accentuated their dependence on the western European core. Most CEE countries were spared the worst of the crisis, however, because of the still shallow penetration of banking industries. This may be one reason why the crisis had relatively little effect on the politics of the CEE region.