This book demonstrates how interest groups shape monetary policy decisions in increasingly globalized financial markets, describing the links between monetary policy and economic governance in small countries in both Western and Eastern Europe.

Preface -- Introduction -- Small European States and the Challenge of Globalization -- The Geopolitical Setting -- The Economic Impact of Central and Eastern European Reforms on Western European Economies -- International Monetary Policy and Institutions -- The Credibility of Monetary Integration: Implications of European Experience for Monetary Union -- Denmark and European Integration -- The Reluctant Enthusiast: Finland and the European Union -- Institutional Choice in Transition Economies: The Baltic Monetary Reforms -- Neocorporatism and Its Alternatives -- European Transformation and Institution Building in East and West: The Performance of and Preconditions for Neocorporatism -- Can Nordic Social Corporatism Survive? Challenges to the Labor Market -- Small Business and Local Economic Regeneration in Hungary: The Collective Works Organization as Institutional Alternative -- Conclusion -- Strategic Opportunity, Adaptation, and the Life Cycle of Institutions: Lessons for Large and Small States