THE ARTICLES INCLUDED IN THIS DOSSIÊ concern the process of transformation of Eastern Europe countries, that began with the perestroika in the Soviet Union and was rapidly followed by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, organized under the soviet model. This process is by now completing almost a decennium and the amount of experience and knowledge about it, is giving place to a considerable literature, on the various aspects that conform the transformation. The articles here included cover some of them, of the highest importance for the understanding of the debate around the transformation. DR. LÁSZLÓ CSABA'S ARTICLE gives a general view of the process, stressing its "peculiar nature", which has to do with the historical pattern followed by the socialist industrialisation of these countries. The first part of the article gives an overall analysis of this pattern and its crises, concluding that the reasons of what he calls the modernization dead end are of structural character and that so shoud they be understood and dealt with. The second part of the article concerns the transformation as a new path of modernization, covering what the autor understands to be the relevant issues for getting these countries "out of the dead end alley": the long term problems , institutional building and changes in the behavioural norms. The article finishes with an overview and prospects, especially those concerned with the European Union membership. DR. TATIANA ZASLAVSKAIA'S ARTICLE is a broad overview of the social stratification of the Russian Federation and it dynamics, as a result of the systemic transformation the country is undergoing. This article results of an original research, done on the basis of a three year monitoring of the reforms, conduced by the Russian Center of Public Opinion Research. Besides defining the goals of the research and the methods followed, the article traces the social structure of the Russian society; it identifies its different groups and strata, with the correspondent socio-demographic characteristics and socio-economic status; and it discusses the income distribution and its dynamics over the period under investigation. The main conclusion of the research - only part of it being the subject mather of the article - is that the process of systemic transformation is deep and marked by contradictions, reflecting the combination of modernisation and social regression, without definition of which of these trends prevails. The central issue is now the adaptation of the mass groups to the new social conditions, which may lead to serious social and political problems. In view of this, the role of social scientist is to correctly assess the results of the transformation process and the degree of its conformity with the social interests of the mass groups and strata of the population and with their capacity of adaptation to the market. This would be their contribution to the formulation of a strategy to take the country out of its crisis. DR.TADEUSZ KOWALIK'S ARTICLE is concerned with the distribution of income in Poland in the period of the systemic transformation. It begins with an overview of the theoretical discussion over the issue, and follows with the demonstration of what he understands to be a "revolution" in the income structure in Poland, based mainly on three studies done at the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The data used concern the period 1990-1993 and explore the structure as well the dinamycs of the personal income of the population. Indicating social polarisation as the main characteristic of the changes undergone, the article concludes that it is a result of both government action and spontaneity, and identifies the chalenge facing polish elite: leaving income formation to the market or opting for a conscious socio-economic policy aimed at the reduction of inequalities ? DR. PAVEL MERTLIK'S ARTICLE deals with a specific problem of the transformation process: privatization. It is based on different research projects, fulfilled with dr. Mertlik's participation. After briefly introducing the czeck reforms, the article describes very carefully the design of privatization and the ownership setup resulting of its implementation. The next paragraphs are dedicated to the analysis of the mode of operation of the former state-owned sector and to the corporate governance in voucher privatized firms. The main conclusions of the work are first, that the privatization process determines the future of each company and that there is no significant correlation between the form of privatization and the economic performance of privatized companies; second, that the instability of the emerged property rights setup and the resulting corporate governance created by the voucher privatization becomes now to be apparent, with all agents involved increasingly asking for an institutional change of the existing regulation; third, that the "silent secondary privatization"already proceeds in capital markets and hence, the structure of the property rights in voucher-privatized companies is silently and invisibly changing.
