The Transformation Of The Communist Economies

The mainstream view of the way in which best to transform the communist economies was that there should be a rapid transition to a free market economy and political democracy. The articles in this book challenge this view. They do so from the standpoint of economic and political theory, and from an evaluation of the comparative experience of different reforming countries in Europe and Asia. This book represents the first systematic attempt to try to explain the dramatic contrast in outcome between reforming countries that have pursued comprehensive system reform and those that have pursued cautious, experimental strategies.

In the confrontation between the two main economic systems that has marked the twentieth century, capitalism has been declared the winner–by default– over its adversary, socialism. Today, establishing a market economy has become the primary goal of the formerly socialist countries. The history of economic reform helps explain this remarkable turning point. Attempts to improve the old centralized system by expanding enterprise autonomy (in Poland, the Soviet Union, and East Germany) and more radical reforms that limited the role of central planning (in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and China) encountered social and political obstacles or had unexpected and undesired effects. During the 1980s, the idea of a socialist market economy, which had been seen as a "third way" between capitalism and centralized socialism, was abandoned as economists gradually came to support a free market rather than the dogma of planning. Through a comparative and historical analysis of change in socialist and post-socialist systems, this timely and original book clarifies the policies and pitfalls in this extraordinary transition. Bernard Chavance provides a succinct introduction and analysis of the politics and economics of Eastern Europe from the creation of the Stalinist system in the Soviet Union through what he argues have been three major waves of reform since the 1950s to the dismantling of most socialist governments in the 1990s. Exploring the link between the one-party regime and the growing rigidity of socialist economic systems, the author analyzes the failure of both incremental and radical reforms to adapt to new economic challenges, thus leading to the ultimate collapse of communist regimes in Europe.

Examining transformations using a variety of perspectives Theorizing Transition provides both a rich empirical map of the dimensions of post-Communism and raises important theoretical issues about how we interpret these changes.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the successes and failures of 27 countries post-communism transformation. Looking at life after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the book examines and contrasts why some countries have virtually completed their transformation to a liberal polity and economy, while others lag behind.

In this collection of essays David A Dyker explores some of the mostdifficult and fascinating aspects of the process of transition fromautocratic real socialism to a capitalism that is sometimesdemocratic, sometimes authoritarian. The stress is on the economicdimension of transformation, but the author sets the economic dramafirmly within a political economy framework and a historicalperspective. Trends in key economic variables are analysed against thebackground of the struggle between different social and politicalgroups for power and command over resources. While the book pays dueattention to topical issues like EU enlargement, the underlyingperspective is a long-term one. Transition is viewed not as a set ofonce-and-for-all institutional changes or a process of short-termstabilisation, but as a historic opportunity to solve the inheritedproblem of poverty and underdevelopment in Central-East Europe and theformer Soviet Union. The book ends with a critical assessment of howeconomics, as a discipline, has coped with the challenge of thathistoric opportunity.

This ground-breaking new volume focuses on the interaction between political, social, and economic change in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States. It includes a wide selection of analytic papers, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars in diverse fields, and an agenda for future research. It integrates work on the micro and macro levels of the economy and provides a broad overview of the transition process. This volume broadens the current intellectual and policy debate concerning the historic transition now taking place from a narrow concern with purely economic factors to the dynamics of political and social change. It questions the assumption that the post-communist economies are all following the same path and that they will inevitably develop into replicas of economies in the advanced industrial West. It challenges accepted thinking and promotes the utilization of new methods and perspectives.

This book considers aspects of transformation of former state socialist countries: social and economic outcomes; forces in the transformation process; problems of consolidation of the new regimes;and other scenarios. It also looks at alternative types of society that might replace state socialism, particularly state capitalism and market socialism.

The publication brings together a series of essays offering an institutional analysis of economic and social change in Central and Eastern Europe and the new independent states. Available in image format, hypertext HTML, and as Adobe Acrobat PDF files.