The main idea of liberalism – the inviolability of “inalienable human rights” – is considered in a historical context, not as an eternal principle, but as a changing moral and legal norm. It is argued that the economic success of the West during the transition to capitalism is associated...

This article examines the relationship between nomenklatura membership, wealth accumulation and political ties across the post-Soviet region from the 1990s up to the mid-2010s. It introduces the Post-Soviet Oligarchs (PSO) dataset, containing the sociodemographic characteristics of the...

The political system in China is often referred to as political meritocracy. This study develops a simple model of political economy to explore the strengths and weaknesses of a meritocratic system (in which political meritocrats design economic policies) relative to a democratic system...

In social sciences there has been a long debate between the defenders of institutionalism and those of liberalism. The debate has centered around the relationship that exists between the individual (agent) and the social institutions (social structure). In general, liberalism defends that the...

India is a large, heterogeneous and complex nation, with multiple languages, religions and ethnicities, and over one billion people. It stands out in having held together while sustaining a working democracy for over five decades, at relatively low levels of income. One of the main institutional...

This paper examines India’s federal system in the context of prospects for India’s future economic growth and development. After a brief review of India’s recent policy reforms and economic development outcomes, and of the country’s federal institutions, the analysis focuses on the major...

The paper approaches the problem of differentiation of strategies implemented by individual countries in the institutional competition for foreign investments by looking at the experience of Kazakhstan. It basically focuses on the contradiction between political bias and political survival...

This article examines recent and potential reforms in India’s fiscal federal system. We summarize key federal institutions in India, including tax and expenditure assignments, and mechanisms for Center-state transfers. We discuss the institutional process by which reforms can and do take...

The collapse of former communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe opened the transition period from centrally planned to market oriented economies. Thus, the exploration of economic systems in the special situation of transition has become an interesting research topic. The exposition plan...

This study tries to quantify the impact of transition in Eastern countries in an early stage on the cost-side and also on the benefit-side. The exposition plan includes: 1) Introduction; 2) Structural distortions; 3) Transition versus stability.