State And Society In Post Socialist Economies

State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies focuses on the reform economies of post-socialist Europe. It looks at how various projects of communism that emerged in have been and are still being dismantled and recomposed by alternative visions, institutions and practices of capitalist market economies and democratic polities.

David Lane outlines succinctly yet comprehensively the development and transformation of state socialism. While focussing on Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, he also engages in a discussion of the Chinese path. In response to the changing social structure and external demands, he outlines different scenarios of reform. He contends that European state socialism did not collapse but was consciously dismantled. He brings out the West’s decisive support of the reform process and Gorbachev’s significant role in tipping the balance of political forces in favour of an emergent ascendant class. In the post-socialist period, he details developments in the economy and politics. He distinguishes different political and economic trajectories of countries of the former USSR, the New Member States of the European Union, and China; and he notes the attempts to promote further change through ‘coloured’ revolutions. The book provides a detailed account not only of the unequal impact of transformation on social inequality which has given rise to a privileged business and political class, but also how far the changes have fulfilled the promise of democracy promotion, wealth creation and human development. Finally, in the context of globalisation, the author considers possible future political and economic developments for Russia and China. Throughout the author, a leading expert in the field, brings to bear his deep knowledge of socialist countries, draws on his research on the former Soviet Union, and visits to nearly all the former state socialist countries, including China.

In this book, first published in 1989, Ken Post and Phil Wright provide a critical analysis of socialist construction in underdeveloped countries. Pointing out that all the socialist revolutions of the twentieth century have occurred in underdeveloped peripheral capitalist countries, they focus on the relationship between socialism and underdevelopment. They bring together the insights of both development theory and the political economy of socialism, and draw upon their direct experience of the state socialist societies as diverse as North Korea, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.

This interdisciplinary collection explores what mobility meant, and still means, in the specific contexts of Soviet and East European socialist and post-socialist societies. Together the chapters consider diverse practices of mobility and their different contexts of power, resistance and inequality.

Cities After Socialism is the first substantial and authoritative analysis of the role of cities in the transition to capitalism that is occurring in the former communist states of Easter Europe and the Soviet Union. It will be of equal value to urban specialists and to those who have a more general interest in the most dramatic socio-political event of the contemporary era - the collapse of state socialism. Written by an international group of leading experts in the field, Cities after socialism asks and answers some crucial questions about the nature of the emergent post-socialist urban system and the conflicts and inequalities which are being generated by the processes of change now occurring.

In his new study, Kelley looks at the emergence of what Soviet theorists call a developed socialist society and at the recent political, economic, and social developments, up to and including those of the early days of the Gorbachev administration, that are contributing to this newest adaptation of Marxism-Leninism. His central premise is that the Soviet leadership, having arrived at a turning point created by the impact of the scientific and technological revolution, has recognized the inability of existing policies and institutions to meet the needs of a rapidly maturing system. Kelley finds that, both as a theoretical stage in the evolution toward communism and as a reflection of changes in Soviet society, the concept of developed socialism presents a picture of political and social modernization that is in many ways the counterpart of the Western theory of post-industrial society. He also notes a new, seemingly more flexible Soviet approach to ideology as such. The Soviets, he observes, look upon the theory of developed socialism itself as being in an evolving state, treating it as an open-ended model of future economic and social transformation whose outlines are only gradually becoming discernable.

Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition considers the problems and prospects for creating trustworthy and reliable public institutions in the aftermath of the transition from socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. The volume draws on the experience of those who have lived through and studied the transition and contrasts their insights with those of generalist scholars who study government accountability and democracy. The contributions originated in the Collegium Budapest project on Honesty and Trust: Theory and Experience in the Light of the Post-Socialist Transition, organized by János Kornai and Susan Rose-Ackerman. A second volume entitled, Creating Social Trust in Post-Socialist Transition , is being published simultaneously.

"The product of an international political economy colloquium series held at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies"--Page vii. Continued by: The evolutionary transition to capitalism. 1995. Includes bibliographical references and index.