How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia [Paperback]

This second edition updates all chapters and covers the impacts of the global financial crisis and the European Union.In How Capitalism Was Built, Second Edition, Anders ?slund explains why communism collapsed, why Russia did not choose gradual reforms like China did, wherein lies the relative success of postcommunist transformation in twenty-one countries, and how oligarchs arose and declined vis-?-vis authoritarian leaders. New chapters cover the impacts of the global financial crisis and the European Union on the region.In How Capitalism Was Built, Second Edition, Anders ?slund explains why communism collapsed, why Russia did not choose gradual reforms like China did, wherein lies the relative success of postcommunist transformation in twenty-one countries, and how oligarchs arose and declined vis-?-vis authoritarian leaders. New chapters cover the impacts of the global financial crisis and the European Union on the region.Anders ?slund is known to make bold predictions that initially arouse controversy but soon become common wisdom. In his book Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform (1989), he foresaw the collapse of the Soviet political and economic system. When others saw little but chaos, he depicted the success of Russia's market transformation in How Russia Became a Market Economy (1995). After Russia's financial crisis of 1998, although most observers declared the market economic experiment a failure, ?slund foresaw market economic success (Building Capitalism, 2002). In How Capitalism Was Built, Second Edition, he asks  and answers in depth for the twenty-one countries he investigates: Why did communism collapse? Why did Russia not choose gradual reforms like China did? Wherein lies the relative success of postcommunist transformation? How did the oligarchs arise and decline vis-?-vis authoritarian leaders? Anyone who wants to understand the often confusing postcommunist dramas and to obtain an early insight into the future will find this intlc(