What Is Shock Therapy? What Did It Do in Poland and Russia?*

The paper considers Russian reforms within the wider debate on the advisability of shock therapy programs. The vision of political and economic processes implicit in shock therapy is analyzed and critiqued using a comparison with an alternative, evolutionary viewpoint. In Poland and Russia, shock therapy failed in its goal of implementing top-down reforms, by-passing existing political and social forces. In Poland, shock therapy was not the primary force leading to significant economic progress. In Russia, shock therapy's focus on destruction of the old, rather than creation of new market institutions, was immensely significant, given the lack of previous economic reform in the USSR. Journal of Economic Literature classification P20, P50.