Privatization reforms revisited - does 'rule of law' matter? a comparative analysis of Poland and Russia /

by 1977- Totev, Kardam Georgiev

This thesis is motivated by the puzzling observation that the neo-liberal assumption about the crucial importance of a speedy privatization process for economic performance is not confirmed by real-world events in Poland and Russia. While Poland chose a less radical, more gradual path of ownership transformation than Russia, the results of Polish privatization were clearly more favorable. Two competing but not mutually excluding explanations are examined – rule of law and privatization method. While the latter is found to be rightly referred to as one important determinant of privatization success, the former, in the past often neglected explanation, appears to be also important for clarifying the question why rapid privatization in Russia yielded worse results than cautious privatization in Poland.