@techreport{Gatzweiler2001evolution,
abstract = {This paper aims at explaining the role and importance of the evolution of institutions for sustainable
agri-environments during the transition process by referring to examples of agri-environmental problems
faced in Central and Eastern European countries. It is often stated that the replacement of institutional
structures in post socialist countries would bring a unique opportunity to implement new
policies and institutions needed to ensure that economic growth is environmentally sustainable. This
idea stems from the assumption that the breakdown of the socialist system resembles that (of the
Schumpeterian1 type) of creative destruction \textendash{} a process that incessantly revolutionizes economic
structures from within. However, not all kinds of institutions, especially at local level, can simply be
implemented, and even more, not incessantly. Instead, they evolve as a response to ecosystem and
social system characteristics, and this is a rather slow process. A central question therefore is
whether the required institutional arrangements for achieving sustainability in the area of agrienvironmental
resource management can be built more easily in periods of transition as they fill
institutional gaps, or whether processes of transition make institution building a more difficult and
far more time consuming task than previously thought. Above all, we want to find out, how these
two processes of institution building at different scales affect the sustainable management of resources
such as water and biodiversity in agriculture? It will become clear that the agrienvironmental
problem areas faced during transition are complex and dynamic and require adequate
institutions both by political design and from the grassroots, to be developed by the respective actors
involved. Transition from centrally planned to pluralistic systems has to be considered as a particular
and in some respect non-typical process of institutional change. Popular theories of institutional
change do not necessarily apply. The privatisation experience from many CEE countries will serve
as an example. Finally, we will provide some examples of missing or insufficient interaction between
political actors or agencies and people in CEE countries. Substantial investments into social
and human capital, particularly regarding informal institutions are needed for institutions of sustainability
to evolve.},
author = {Franz Gatzweiler and Konrad Hagedorn},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {330; Institutioneller Wandel; Systemtransformation; \"{U}bergangswirtschaft; Nachhaltige Entwicklung; Landwirtschaft; Osteuropa},
language = {eng},
number = {4},
title = {The evolution of institutions in transition},
type = {CEESA discussion paper / Humboldt-Universit\"{a}t Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/22286},
year = {2001}
}
