The post-soviet Moldovan capitalism: between oligarchic political economy and reciprocity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study is an analysis of the post-soviet Moldovan capitalism. It mobilises an interdisciplinary approach further to apprehend the system dynamics of the recent 30 years. An inquiry of the economic transformations in the 1990s is the key to understanding the system’s subsequent developments. The study emphasises the Karl Polanyi’s forms of economic integration reading grid to grasp the current Moldovan socio-economic system. It highlights the mixed nature of the Moldovan socio-economic system, where both reciprocity logic and oligarchic political economy converge. The reciprocity is enhanced by the emigration phenomenon and by the remittance economy and replaces the Moldovan state’s failed functions in terms of redistribution. Meanwhile, the collusion between the state and private sector strengthens the oligarchs’ control over key economic sectors. Thus, oligarchic political economy seizes the exchange and redistribution processes in society. As a result, the Moldovan capitalism consists in the convergence of these two imprinted logics on the dynamic of the system for two decades.