Center for the Study of Democracy

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it explores the formation of economic perceptions in post-communist Europe. Second, it investigates the mechanism of economic voting in that region during the early transition years. Using both micro- and macro-level data from 11 newly established democracies in East Central Europe, the author finds that national economic perceptions were disconnected from the objective economic reality, and mostly driven by personal economic evaluations and political attitudes. In addition, the empirical findings suggest that economic voting in the wake of the transition was both retrospective and prospective.