Why Did Transition Happen?

In the mid 1970s Soviet-type systems occupied a major part of the world. The list of states with Soviet-type systems, characterized by state ownership, central planning, and rule by a Communist Party, included the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslavakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba. A number of other states, in Asia and Africa, had adopted some features of the Soviet-type system, although not rule by a Communist Party.