Introduction

This chapter contains basic introductory information on the book, such as the justification of the study, research objectives, as well as description of the structure and sources used. So far, the literature on the growing importance of state ownership and state corporate control concentrated mostly on the developed economies and on selected emerging economies, whereas mostly omitting post-communist economies including those where the “return of state-owned enterprises” is clearly seen—Poland being the most notable example. The existing knowledge gap should be filled because it would increase our understanding not only of the post-communist transition, but also of the nature of currently observed statist trends in the economies worldwide, the scope of their universality and contextuality. The main research objective of the book is the role of the government in transition economies in direct management of enterprises based on control rights resulting from state ownership of firms.