Development Trajectories in the Crisis in Europe

East European states are both those hardest and least hit by the present economic and financial crisis. The heterogeneous consequences of the crisis cannot be understood by focusing exclusively on the region. On the contrary, we analyse the developments against the background of the specific insertion of the region into broader European political-economic structures. Likewise, an analysis of the anti-crisis policies has to transcend the national and sub-regional borders and has to include the EU level. Policy responses to the crisis differ both within the European Union and between Central and Eastern European states. This article discerns the reasons for the differences in both the crisis processes and the policy responses. It does so from the perspective of the theory of regulation. This theory provides the conceptual apparatus to analyse specific national political-economic structures and their linkages within the European context.