Reform and Transformation in Eastern Europe : Soviet-type Economics on the Threshold of Change

Can the economics of Eastern Europe make the dramatic transition from centrally-planned to market-led economics? This book tries to understand the intellectual background behind this change and the problems of managing it. Can the economies of Eastern Europe make the dramatic transition from centrally planned to market-led economies? This is one of the most important and topical issues to arise from the events of 1989-90. Prior to the failure of communism in the Eastern Bloc, reform-minded economists had experimented with the concepts of 'market socialism' which presented no real challenge to the basics of the Soviet-type system. However, those same economists are now formulating radical proposals for de-regulation, privatization and political democratization. Reform and Transformation in Eastern Europe tries to understand the intellectual background that changed these 'reformers' into 'transformers' and examines the problems of managing this dramatic transition. It demonstrates the rediscovery of economic liberalism in Eastern Europe and provides a fresh look at economics in this area. The book is also theoretically important. 'Reform economics' is treated as a legitimate scientific problem in the history of economic thought, rather than an obscure ideological corollary of practical reform making, as it is usually considered. The contributors include some of the most distinguished economists and policy makers in Europe. The book examines its subject from three perspectives--Western liberal economics (the likely future); Stalinism (the past); and the prospects for successful transition. Reform and Transformation in Eastern Europe offers a distinctive insight into one of the major issues facing the new governments of Eastern Europe Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 1 The ‘socialist calculation debate’ and reform discussions in socialist countries......Page 24 2 The reform of Soviet socialism as a search for systemic rationality......Page 37 3 An organizational theory of the socialist economy......Page 55 4 Reform economics and western economic theory......Page 75 5 Some institutional failures of socialist market economie......Page 92 6 On firms, hierarchies and economic reforms......Page 102 7 Soviet reforms and western neo-classical economics......Page 113 8 Economic reform in a bargaining economy......Page 133 9 From revisionism to pragmatism......Page 143 10 Soviet economic reform in historical perspective......Page 149 11 Reform economics and bureaucracy......Page 167 12 Reformability of the ‘objective economic laws’ of socialism......Page 179 13 The theoretical and psychological obstacles to market-oriented reform in China......Page 197 14 The scope of economic reforms in socialist countries......Page 210 15 The political conditions of economic reform in socialism......Page 222 16 Opposition against market-type reforms in centrally-planned economies......Page 241 17 Macroeconomic policy for the transitional reforms in the centrally-planned economies......Page 256 18 The property rights in Hungary......Page 274 Index......Page 323 Can the economies of Eastern Europe make the transition from planning to the market? The failure of communism in Eastern Europe has left a legacy of opportunity and challenge. Earlier attempts at "market socialism" by reform-minded economists presented no real threat to the Soviet-type system, and it is now clear that a more radical solution is required.

In Reform and Transformation in Eastern Europe, some of the most distinguished economists and policy-makers in Europe examine the possibility of an "economics of transformation." This group, which includes eminent scholars from both Eastern and Western Europe, demonstrates the rediscovery of economic liberalism in Eastern Europe and provides a fresh look at economics in this area. "Reform economics" is treated as a legitimate scientific problem in the history of economic thought rather than an obscure ideological effect of practical reform. Timely and comprehensive, this book offers distinctive insight into one of the major issues facing the new governments of Eastern Europe. According to a widespread view, reformism is tantamount to moving away from Stalinist orthodoxy in the direction of liberal economics.