Analysis, interpretation, and the local dimension of economic transformation: What went wrong and why?

Transformation has been put in motion by a variety of both endogenous and exogenous forces. Although not any process was under the control of those countries, their choice of goals and instruments was anyway particularly great, at least theoretically. However, transformation was implemented as a rather narrowly defined and technically circumscribed problem-solving process aiming at applying sound general principles of economics and management to reach well-defined goals. It turned out to generate new problems and resulted in different outcomes in different countries and, within individual countries, in different territories. This paper treats transformation as innovation and considers that it had to deal with different dimensions, including both general principles and local features, opportunities, and constraints, and both analysis based on problem-solving, and interpretation of the new situation. These dimensions should have been managed simultaneously, but failed to do so. The paper provides a general explanation for the failure in managing simultaneously the various components of transformation and considers what the 2008 international crisis has revealed of the implementation of 20 years of transformation.