Transition periods are not a new phenomenon in the history of socio-economic development. There have been such periods before. It gives
the ability to raise the question of the types of transition periods, their classification.
Classification in science requires the allocation of the criterion by which it is carried out. However, the study of very complex phenomena and systems is also multi-criteria. Such phenomena include the transition economy.
If the criterion is to single out the object of the ongoing transition, i.e. what the changes are aimed at , then the following main types of transitions (and transition periods) can be distinguished:
1 – technical and economic, i.e. transition from one technological method of production to another (for example, from artisan to machine);
2 – economic and organizational, i.e. transition from one type of organization and management to another;
3 – axiological-motivational, in which one system of values and motives of economic activity is replaced by another;
4 – systemic-economic, when one economic system is replaced by another;
5 – civilizational – global transitions from one type of civilization to another with the inclusion, in addition to economic, significant changes in the socio-cultural sphere.
The second criterion for the typology of transition periods may be the nature of the transition. Then the following types of transitions are distinguished:
natural-economic, reflecting the course and logic of historical development; reformist-evolutionary, when transitions are accelerated or corrected by socio-economic modeling and reform; revolutionary with a sharp violent breakdown of old forms and attitudes.
The third criterion for classifying transition periods may be the depth of transformations, according to which it is possible to distinguish:
intra-system transitions (for example, from purely market regulation of the economy to its state regulation in Western countries after the world crisis of 1929-1932); intersystem transitions, when the economic basis of society and its main institutions change dramatically, another economic system comes.
Another criterion for distinguishing between the types of transition periods is the scale of transition processes. Then the transitional periods are distinguished:
national (within one country); regional; Global.
It is quite possible that two or more types of transitions occur at about the same time coincide. Such a transition period can be called complex or multi-layered.