Economies and Politics of Transition

Catalog description

The course identifies, describes, and explains major social, economic and political processes that have started in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the collapse of the communist systems in Poland and other East-Central European countries. The transition from the centrally planned to free market economies and the present challenges and problems associated with joining the European Union will be discussed in the context of the political and social changes and related to specific historical conditions. The course puts a special stress on Poland, which in turn will allow students to develop models of patterns of transition applicable to the entire region of East-Central Europe. In English. First year students require instructor permission.