Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman: Normal countries – 25 years after communism
Pedestrians are reflected in the enclosure of a Christmas fair on Moscow's Red Square on Dec. 25, 2014.
Twenty-five years after the Berlin Wall came down, a sense of missed opportunity hangs over the countries that once lay to its east. Back then, hopes ran high amid the euphoria that greeted the sudden implosion of communism. From Bratislava to Ulaanbaatar, democracy and prosperity seemed to be just around the corner.
