Transition is Over, Wait to See the Benefits : A Comparative Evaluation of the Effects of Post-Communist Transition on Life Satisfaction

Life satisfaction, an overall evaluation of one’s life, is increasingly used as an indicator to guide social policy and to evaluate social change. This measure gives a global assessment of the societal changes effects of transition on average people, filtered through their attitudes and experience. The present paper focuses on effects of transition in eleven post-communist countries that already joined or are expected to join soon EU (including East Germany), using a comparative approach. The purpose is manifold: to compare life satisfaction levels at the beginning (1990-1991), in the middle (1996-1997) and towards the end of the transition process (2004-2005), to evaluate recent trends. Main data sources used were World Database of Happiness, Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (2001-2004), and standard Eurobarometers. Contrary to the theory of effects of “transition with different speeds”, patterns of country differences were generally maintained through all this period. The common trend is V-shaped, with a minimum in 1996-1997, supposedly coinciding with or closed to the time when transition crisis hurt most. Only recently national averages seem to return to the initial levels. Close-to-date evolutions in life satisfaction are very slow, almost stagnant, showing that effects of successful transition on average people’s lives are still waited