Branko Milanovic — For Whom the Wall Fell? A balance-sheet of transition to capitalism

So, what is the balance-sheet of transition? Only three or at most five or six countries could be said to be on the road to becoming a part of the rich and (relatively) stable capitalist world. Many are falling behind, and some are so far behind that they cannot aspire to go back to the point where they were when the Wall fell for several decades. Despite philosophers of “universal harmonies” such as Francis Fukuyama, Timothy Garton Ash, Vaclav Havel, Bernard Henry Lévy, and scores of international “economic advisors” to Boris Yeltsin, who all phantasized about democracy and prosperity, neither really arrived for most people in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The Wall fell only for some.

Global Inequality
For Whom the Wall Fell? A balance-sheet of transition to capitalism
Branko Milanovic | visiting presidential professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at LIS