We hypothesize, that power centralisation in a political system leads to more corruption due to the <p> monopoly power status of bureaucrats. Corruption again would then lead to a lower level of social capital, <p> here measured as trust, and slow down economic growth even further. Indeed, when...</p></p>

The transition of the »Old Communist« countries of East and Central Europe has been disappointingly slow given the amount of physical and human capital available at the start of the <p> transition. We argue that this slowness is caused by the lack of social capital, which is an <p> important factor...</p></p>