Are there any blueprints that can ensure the success of democratic consolidation? Is their efficiency based on world wide empirical evidence that recognizes divergent legacies of social structures and consciousness? In this work, Alina STRUGUT argues for a paradox of democratic transformation: the success of early economic societies - as an arena of democratic consolidation - is guaranteed through un-democratic measures. This is due to the great magnitude of post-communist economic transformation, where timing was crucial. For this, Alina STRUGUT identifies and examines elements of path-dependency in the configuration of incipient economic societies, by looking into the first reform packages introduced in post-communist Poland and Romania. This book explores how increasing returns and critical junctures have punctuated not only the settings for the implementation of reforms, but also the structural dimensions of incipient economic societies: state intervention and market mechanisms. Such structural dimensions are analyzed for the most important reform policies: macroeconomic stabilization and liberalization, privatization, and social safety nets.