The Challenges of Sustained Development

The Role of Socio-Cultural Factors in East-Central Europe

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Table of contents
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How wide is the gap between the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and the most developed nations? How can it be narrowed?

This book addresses these questions in a comprehensive way. It delves into the inter-relations between the major factors of developmental performance and looks at their effects on sustained societal development. A vast amount of statistical data on social and economic factors in selected European countries is grouped into 31 easy-to-handle tables and analyzed along the following constructs: civilizational competence; social capital; cognitive mobilization; quality of governance; entrepreneurial spirit; social cohesion; and openness to the international environment.

The analysis, based on theories and indicators of development, reveals that, in spite of the progress since the fall of Communism, countries in Central and Eastern Europe still fall short of having been transformed into propulsive, "vibrant" societies, with intellectually open-minded, socially and technologically innovative environments

1. INTRODUCTION: THE POINT OF DEPARTURE 4

2. CIVILISATIONAL COMPETENCE 17

3. SOCIAL CAPITAL 40

4. COGNITIVE MOBILISATION 63

5. QUALITY OF GOVERNANCE 86

6. ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT 108

7. SOCIAL COHESION 131

8. THE OPENNESS OF SOCIETIES 151

9. DEVELOPMENTAL PERFORMANCE 174

10. CONCLUSION 198

REFERENCES 202

DATABASES 212

Note de Lecture

"This excellent example of critical modernization studies focuses on issues of socio-economic development, paying special attention to so-called cultural factors of development.... [This book] is an inspiring attempt at offering a theoretically and methodologically sound ‘cultural’ approach to developmental, institutional and social change. It integrates a broad exploration of social-theory sources with carefully conducted empirical analyses. Moreover, it outlines a holistic, heuristic model of developmental performance, which is immediately put to the empirical test by the authors in the comparative analyses focused on post-communist countries. It is noteworthy that the authors do not hide theoretical and methodological difficulties inherent in the proposed model – unique in itself – but try to overcome them or, at least, to warn the reader against them. In addition, they leave the model open for further elaboration. Throughout the book they present and discuss an impressive... more