The progress of post-socialist systemic transformation should be evaluated through the prism of its influence on a country’s development abilities. During twenty years of comprehensive systemic shift, gross domestic product has increased only to a limited degree, on a par with the growth of the world economy. While judging the transformation progress, not only the improvement of competitiveness and growth in terms of quantity must be taken into account, but also social and cultural aspects. Had there been a better policy co-ordination of systemic change and socio-economic development, GDP could have increased by a considerable amount more. This opportunity has been missed due to the implementation of sub-optimal if not just wrong economic policies based on wrong economic theories and the lack of ability of the ruling elites to overrun the conflicts of interests.