Transformation and the "politics of conditionality" : a comparative analysis of Poland and Romania until the mid-1990s

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2006
Akşit, Sait
This thesis examines the socio-economic transformation processes in Poland and Romania and aims to embed them in broader structural and historical context of changes. The main argument is that transformation processes in the states of Central and Eastern Europe are constituted by the global processes of change within a social totality. The study has three main objectives. First, it aims to provide a theoretical framework challenging the mainstream approaches methodologically/ontologically to point out to their limits and account for the dialectical relationship between the global and the internal. Second, to develop an account of the international context surrounding the transformation processes to highlight the nature of the global and hence to emphasise the unity of transformation and integration processes. As such, it critically interprets the social purpose of the international institutions and the European Union involvement in the policy-making of the states in the region through the changing techniques of monitoring, reporting and the process of negotiations. Third, to provide an analysis of the transformation processes in Poland and Romania as processes of the internationalisation of the state which would effectively help in examining the constitutive role of the global in a dialectical relationship with the national level dynamics and changes. Integration with the global economy as well as Euro-Atlantic institutions was an integral element of the neo-liberal restructuring in Poland and Romania. Socio-economic transformation in the region with added dimensions of conditionality had important social consequences, thereby resulting in new forms of state-society relations.

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Citation Formats
S. Akşit, “Transformation and the “politics of conditionality” : a comparative analysis of Poland and Romania until the mid-1990s,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2006.