Geographic diffusion and the transformation of the postcommunist world

Since the collapse of communism the states of postcommunist Europe and Asia have defined for themselves, and have had defined for them, two primary ta sks: the construction of viable market economies and the establishment of w orking institutions of representative democracy. The variation in political and economic outcomes in the postcommunist space makes it, without questio n, the most diverse "region" in the world. What explains the variation? All of the big winners of postcommunism share the trait of being geographicall y close to the former border of the noncommunist world. Even controlling fo r cultural differences, historical legacies, and paths of extrication, the spatial effect remains consistent and strong across the universe of postcom munist cases. This suggests the spatially dependent nature of the diffusion of norms, resources, and institutions that are necessary to the constructi on of political democracies and market economies in the postcommunist era. The authors develop and adduce evidence for the spatial dependence hypothes is, test it against rival hypotheses, and illustrate the relationships at w ork through three theoretically important case studies.