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Article: Tolerating economic reform: popular support for transition to a free market in the former Soviet Union.
- Article from:
- American Political Science Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Cambridge University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The mass public in the Soviet Union is not enthusiastic about free-market reform. How, then, do citizens in a former communist regime develop an appreciation for free-market reforms? Different explanations for attitudes toward free market reforms are tested using data from a survey of the European USSR conducted in May 1990. First, negative assessments of recent economic performance is a catalyst for popular support for the market economy. Although very underdeveloped, there is a nascent free-market culture in the Soviet Union that makes a modest contribution to support for free markets are reforms. The free-market culture that is developing in the former Soviet Union ...