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Extricating the State: The Move to Competitive Capture in Post-Communist Bulgaria

Author: andrew Barnes

In: Europe-Asia Studies, Vol 59, No 1, 2007, pp. 71-95

Barnes notes that, although academic analysis initially stressed the need to end extensive state control of the economy in post-Communist states, there was now increasing recognition that private economic interests can capture the state and prevent full-scale political reform. While no single economic group can control the political institutions, competing groups can struggle to gain leverage for their own economic benefit.