the household, the market, and the state. Given low starting points, only a minority of developing countries have already caught up with the high standards of welfare in Europe, the United States and Canada, and the Asia Pacific region. Slow but steady rates of progress show that people in a majority of developing countries can expect to catch up with the high, fixed standards of welfare in the
next three decades. This will happen sooner in China and later in India, because China has been unusually successful in using its resources to promote welfare while India has been below the global average.

These conclusions are based on Richard Rose's systematic analysis of the Global Welfare Database, which combines official and unofficial data covering 95 per cent of the world's population. The success of highly developed countries raises questions about how much is enough welfare. At what age will young people learn more by leaving classrooms and becoming employees? Is length of life or quality of life more important for older people? Should unpaid work caring for children and older family members have the same value as working and paying taxes in the official economy?

2e:T636,

The fall of the Berlin Wall launched the transformation of government, economy and society across half of Europe and the former Soviet Union. This text deals with the process of change in former Communist bloc countries, ten of which have become new European Union (EU) democracies while Russia and her neighbours remain burdened by their Soviet legacy.

Drawing on more than a hundred public opinion surveys from the New Europe Barometer, the text compares how ordinary people have coped with the stresses and opportunities of transforming Communist societies into post-Communist societies and the resulting differences between peoples in the new EU member states and Russia.

Subjects covered by Understanding Post-Communist Transformation include:

Stresses