| How does a country's formulation of its economic, political and social policies affect its ability to achieve a full transformation of its economy? This dissertation puts forth the Full Societal Transformation Thesis which states that a transformation of an economy, such as a change from a command economic system to a market-dominated system, requires compatible, mutually reinforcing and simultaneously implemented change in economic, political and social policies. Economic transformation is hypothesized to be a function of three major factors: economic policies, political policies, and social policies. The Full Societal Transformation Thesis is developed and examined using the first ten years of the post-communist Central and Eastern European country experiences. The dissertation demonstrates that the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe are comparable based on a shared soviet culture. This forms the basis for replication of results and suggests that an analysis done in one of the countries applies to most of them. Because the soviet mono-banking system model is based on the same organizing principle as the soviet command economic model as a whole, problems encountered while making the change to the post-communist banking system reflect problems found in transforming the soviet command economic system to a market-dominated economic system. A case study of Lithuania shows the total effect of sovietization on a single country, and specifically its banking sector. The analysis of the banking sector demonstrates that the change from a centralized banking system to a two-tier banking system requires complimentary changes in political, economic and social policies. Thus, the dissertation's findings support the Full Societal Transformation Thesis; a full economic transformation cannot occur without compatible, mutually reinforcing and simultaneously implemented changes in the political, economic, and social policies of a country. |
