“Economies in Transition” (hereafter referred to as “EITs”) consist of 31 geographically dispersed nations (International Monetary Fund 2010) with a combined population of 1,916 million—approximately 27.8% of the world’s total in 2010 (UNPOP 2010) . EITs are located in East and Southeast Asia (N = 4), Central and Eastern Europe (N = 10), and Central Asia (N = 11). They also include China, Turkey, the Russian Federation, and the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Other countries are regarded as EITs, but the challenges associated with their development have tended to be longer in duration (e.g., Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Mexico, among others). The majority of countries classifi ed as EITs in this study are relatively young—most having achieved their independence only since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in December 1991. The social, political, and economic transitions for some of the study’s EITs began earlier than 1991, but owing to their long histories, large geographic territories, and current political complexities, their transition process has moved more slowly, i.e., the Russian Federation (1917), Turkey (1923), and China (1949).
