Description: Drawing upon recent progress in development economics and political science, this book provides fresh analysis of the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries transition to a market economy by tracing the impact of natural resource endowment.
Review Quotes:
"One may think the rather unusual title would sum up the situation in the states formerly allied in the Soviet Union fairly well, but in fact the reasons why lessons were not learned are much more complex than mere incompetence or corruption. Instead, the states were involved in too many major projects at the same time: building new governance, creating new market economies, and forging new links in the global economy. These 15 articles are unflinchingly honest, and some are actually optimistic that perhaps some lessons will be learned in time. Their topics include introductions to the problems of transition democracies and resource-driven models of the political economy, transition trends and scenarios within the region (including information on each of the resource-poor and resource-rich states), synergies of those states and the complex nature of the markets, the strength of external leverage on the region." --Reference & Research Book News