Institutional and Socio-Cultural Factors of Post-Socialist Transformations

The paper studies the logic of the development of the theory of postsocialist transit under the influence of the practice of transformations in various countries of the former «socialist camp», which showed the need for a more differentiated doctrine of analysis. It also treats the problem of the correlation of institutional and sociocultural transformation factors. While in modern studies of the reasons for path dependence, authors increasingly pay attention to cultural factors, a practical analysis of the development of post-socialist societies in the context of the most important institutional changes demonstrates surprising dynamics, which is rather a rational reactive response to momentary changes in institutional conditions. This gives grounds to assume that the institutions determine the choice of the trajectory of development (at the individual level – the change of adaptive, life strategies), and culture makes a stable «path».

Keywords: transformation, post-socialist transit, institutional and sociocultural factors, economic reforms.