Eastern European Capitalism In The Making

Publisher Description

This book examines the relationship between governments, labor and business in Central and Eastern Europe as capitalism develops. The tripartite forums for social dialogue in Bulgaria and Poland are described as 'tripartism', a new postcommunist species of state-society interaction and a brand of capitalism distinct from American neoliberalism, Western European neocorporatism and Japanese statism. These forums are understood as institutionalizing of conflict among postcommunist social actors in the industrial arena and consist of three specific elements: political negotiations, civic participation, and multilevel bargaining. The emergence and development of postcommunist tripartism are significantly shaped by the twin domestic necessities to preserve social peace and legitimate and consolidate the social actors. The book explains variations in the establishment and functioning of tripartite institutions across Central and Eastern European countries, industries and regions, with corporatist legacies and legacies of extrication paths from state socialism, on one hand, and, on the other, with social partners' strategic commitment to concerted action. Integration into the international economy and polity, especially European integration, has somewhat diminished differences and, in the long run, is helping to preserve and maintain social dialogue structures in the Central and Eastern European region.

Explores class formation and elite struggles in post-communist Central Europe.

This work observes how the political ideologies, social values, and theoretical paradigms of Eastern European scholars and politicians changed throughout the period of transformation following the 1989 political revolutions in Eastern Europe. The authors try to reinterpret the institutions, movements, and ideologies that allegedly contributed to the erosion of the old regimes in Eastern Europe, asking whether these--alternative--legacies of communism support the transition to capitalism.

This volume presents a shared effort to apply a general historical-institutionalist approach to the problem of assessing institutional change in the wake of communism's collapse in Europe. It brings together a number of leading senior and junior scholars with outstanding reputations as specialists in postcommunism and comparative politics to address central theoretical and empirical issues involved in the study of postcommunism. The authors address such questions as how historical 'legacies' of the communist regime be defined, how their impact can be measured in methodologically rigorous ways, and how the effects of temporal and spatial context can be taken into account in empirical research on the region. Taken as a whole, the volume makes an important contribution to the growing literature by utilizing the comparative historical method to study key problems of world politics.

Designed as a reader for courses in comparative economics, East European economics and politics, and international relations and business; includes 37 recent and "classic" articles in 10 parts. Includes bibliographical references. Part I. The failure of central planning -- Part II. The lure of the market -- Part III. The legal system -- Part IV. The financial system -- Part V. Market failure -- Part VI. The macroeconomy -- Part VII. Privatization -- Part VIII. International economic issues -- Part IX. The politics of economic reform -- Part X. The strategy of reform.

This book intends to be a contribution to the varieties of capitalism paradigm. Our main question is to what extent the present system in Russia, the model of President Putin is a generic model for all post-communist capitalisms.