Douarin, Elodie; (2024) Public Attitudes toward Markets after Central Planning. In: Gevorkyan, Aleksandr V, (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Post-Socialist Economies. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on the determinants of popular support for market economies, and for values deemed compatible with markets, in the transition region (i.e. the countries of post-socialist or post-communist Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia) from the 1990s. The critical review presented focuses on work using large household or individual surveys collected at different points in time since the onset of the transition away from central planning and toward markets. Key differences in the indicators of support are emphasized to clarify how and why specific questions asked to the general population can be informative. This review shows that greater initial support for markets seems to have been important, that early experiences with market reforms (whether extensive or partial) led to changes in views, and that crises appeared as key turning points for further change. But maybe most importantly, it seems that people understood that reforms would have short-term costs, and as long as they remained hopeful that liberalization could bring improvement, they continued to support those market reforms. The chapter emphasizes throughout that analyzing public opinion is difficult especially in the absence of a benchmark. When clear definitions of what is being assessed are not provided, it highlights the limitations of the questions typically used to measure support for policy change or economic systems.

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