From Socialism to Capitalism
Eight Essays
János Kornai, Emeritus Professor
of Economics at Harvard University, and
author of Economics of Shortage (1980), has been the
most influential critic of the political economy of
Socialism from within the block.
Eight essays connected by various common strands.
The most important one is the community of the main
subject-matter: socialism, capitalism, democracy, change
of system. These four expressions cover four phenomena
of great and comprehensive importance. Each piece in
the book deals with these and the connections between
them.
One of the Leitmotifs is the “capitalism/socialism”
pair of opposites. Capitalism has a history of several
hundred years, while the socialist regime existed only
for a few decades. But this pair of opposites was central
to the history of the twentieth century. This antagonism
put its stamp on political thinking, on the foreign
policy and military preparedness of every country, and
on some appallingly destructive armed conflicts. All
these had great secondary influence on each country’s
economic development and the standard of living and
disposition of its inhabitants.
None of the studies is confined to one country—not
to Hungary or to any other. Each tries to embrace the
problems common to greater units. However, the greater
unit comprehended is not the same in each study. One
may deal with the capitalist or socialist system in
general, another will all the post-socialist countries,
and a third the Central East European region. But all
extend the analysis beyond the borders of one country.
Contents
Introduction Chapter 1 The
Coherence of the Classical System Chapter 2
The inner contradictions of reform socialism Chapter
3 Market socialism? Socialist market economy? Chapter
4 The speed of transformation Chapter 5
The great transformation of Central Eastern Europe:
Success and disappointment Chapter 6 What does
“change of system” mean? Chapter 7
What can countries embarking on post-socialist transformation
learn from the experiences so far? Chapter 8
The System Paradigm References Index
"A book which could be recommended to intellectuals
interested in regime change, to economists wishing to
learn on the genesis of transition, and to anybody who
simply wants to understand why economics is a very complex
science going very much beyond modeling little chunks
of reality with much technical but quite exploratory
ambition.
Very lucid and thought provoking with a great explanatory
power regarding the future of economics, social sciences...
and probably critical thinking as well. It is the latter
aspect of the genuine scientific research on which Kornai's
new collection of essays provides its readership with
a great number of examples and insights." - Acta
Oeconomica
2008
256 pages
ISBN 978-963-9776-16-6 cloth $50.00/ €45.00 /
£40.00
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