4. Socialist Protoglobalization and Patterns of Uneven Transnational Integration After 1989

This chapter looks at the rise of foreign direct investment (FDI), both as a new policy orientation, and as a process of capital flows with institutionally transformative consequences in postsocialist economies. While the previous chapters focused largely on political elites and macro-institutional change during the late socialist era, this chapter shifts attention to the impact of organizational processes at the firm level during the immediate postsocialist period in driving the transition towards globally integrated postsocialist industries. The chapter systematically examines patterns of institutional change from joint ventures to foreign direct investment across the region, and demonstrates the capacities of economies with the most diffuse experience with socialist proto-globalization in making the most rapid gains from globalization after economic liberalization post-1989.