Abstract:

Abstract Central and Eastern European countries, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, became full members of the European Union on 1 May 2004 after completing the process of accession negotiations. These countries, mostly past member of the Communist Bloc, tried to utilize the benefits of the capitalist market after entering the EU. This study analyzes the extent to which these countries have achieved their objectives in the past seven years.  In this study, the main indicators were drawn out from the Mehmet Altan’s study named "Capitalism did not undergo this village" and Sabri F. Ülgener’s definition of capitalism: Private sector employment rate, the private sector share in total manufacturing production, foreign trade, share of total output, increase in the number of foreign banks, and private investment as a share of total output. It is investigated whether a significant and positive differentiation of these private sector driven macroeconomic variables has occurred after 2004. According to the results obtained, although entering the EU has given these countries the opportunity to trade more and has led to trade capitalism with a significant progress, no evidence has been found that there is progress in financial and production capitalism. Keywords: Capitalism, Regional Economic Communities, Economies of Central and Eastern European Countries.

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