The Neo-Liberal Platform of the Transition to Market Economy – Specifics and Consequences

The subject of analysis is the nature of the market reforms in the Central and East European (CEE) countries and especially the strong influence of the Washington Consensus as a set of neo-liberal policies that was imposed by the International Monetary Fund on developing and transition countries during the third wave of globalization of the world economy. The consequences of the neo-liberal policies are investigated mainly in the following aspects: i) as a source of misalignment of means and goals in the market reform agenda; ii) as a factor retarding the building of genuine market institutions in the region; iii) as a generator of negative shocks on both external and internal aggregate demand eventually causing a deep and long-lasting recession; iv) as one of the reasons for increasing poverty, inequality and corruption in the economy of transition countries.