Theories of Capitalism Put to the Test: Introduction to a Debate on Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

``Kapitalismustheorien auf dem Prufstand Eine Einfuhrung in die Debutte um Mittel- und Osteuropa''. The present debate on the varieties of capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe is marked by two different theoretical strands, both of which highlight the integration of the region into overarching discourses, and the end of the transformation research which has been current until now. On the one hand, the attempt has been underway with some time to apply the Varieties-of-Capitalism (VoC) approach; on the other hand, the dependency and world-system theory is undergoing a renaissance, and taking a critical stance vis-a-vis VoC. But the strengths and weaknesses of both strands can be seen as complementary. East Germany no longer plays a role in this discussion, since it is a debate related to nation-state entities. In the concluding part of this paper, an attempt is made to show that despite no longer being a national economic unit, the consideration of the new East German states is still a useful exercise. Their integration into the world economy can be read as an extreme ``dependent market economy'' case, and helps us at the same time to understand the regional dimension of the debate.