Abstract
Assessing the conceptualizations of social change that have taken place in CEE in the course of more than 25 years, they may be divided essentially into four waves. Each conceptual approach associated with a particular wave has indicated a next stage or implications resulting from the identified initial condition of ongoing social change.
This way, the first wave may be associated with the term 'transition'. The next stage within this wave of conceptualizing the social change is democratic consolidation.
The second conceptualization wave is connected with the term of 'transformation' and characteristic implication of the approaches falling into this wave is path-dependency, which extensively determines future development. The third - somehow overlooked - wave is associated with such concepts as 'premature consolidation', 'restoration' and most profoundly 'state capture' that to various degrees indicates limited capability of the transitory orders as established in CEE after starting the switch to free market societies following the collapse of state-socialist regimes to evolve in the direction of advanced free-market societies due to rent-seeking mechanisms and vicious circles.