[Excerpt] A common approach in describing countries in Eastern and Central Europe is to focus on similarities among them currently and in their past but to neglect differences. This approach utilizes broad categories as in seeing their economic systems as copies of the soviet model versus a Western free-market model . The principal focus is on delineating East-West differences. But to help Eastern and Central European countries overcome obstacles in this transition era, we need to understand distinctive country-characteristics and idiosyncrasies
