ON THE SPECIFICITY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE POST-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES FROM CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE

The policies implemented in Central Eastern Europe at the beginning of the '90, have been based on a great extent on the Consensus of Washington. Designed to address the financial crisis of Latin America and not the structural problems in the region of centrally planned economies, it was fast adopted by a large number of countries. Yet, fourteen years after, the results are quite disappointing. The neo-classical analysis almost ignored the social reality in this part of Europe, that is the very tough communist legacy. Catching up after socialism is likely to be different from the situation of catching up from a backward economy. This article focus on the entrepreneur as the main bearer of the economic growth. Within the framework of transition, the entrepreneurs are the key actors. The emergence of an entrepreneurial culture in Central Eastern countries is the very first condition for establishing a capitalist society. Formulating a social system with proper channels for entrepreneurship is essential for newly emerging countries. The first part of this article treats on the important question of the communist heritage on entrepreneurial behaviour In the second part we'll review some of the most remarkable work done on the entrepreneur theory in transition countries. The third part focuses on the factors influencing the entrepreneurship development in transition countries.