Adam Zwass - From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China

From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...76

From Failed
Communism
to

Underdeveloped
Capitalism

From Failed
Communism
to

Underdeveloped
Capitalism

Transformation of Eastern Europe,
the Post-Soviet Union,
and China

Adam Zwass

With an Epilogue
by Robert Schediwy

First published 1995 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1995 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalogin-in-Publication Data

Zwass, Adam.
From failed communism to underdeveloped capitalism:
transformation of Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet Union, and China /
Adam Zwass.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-56324-461-6 (cloth)
1. Former Soviet republicseconomic conditions.
2. Europe, EasternEconomic conditions1989
3. ChinaEconomic conditions1976
4. Post-communismFormer Soviet republics.
5. Post-communism, Europe, Eastern.
6. ChinaPolitics and government1976
I. Title.
HC336.27.Z83 1995
338.947dc20 94-48187
CIP

ISBN 13: 9781563244612 (hbk)

This book is dedicated to my wife, Friederike, my children, Vladimir and Alicia, and my grandson, Joshua

Contents

---

---

A social order whose stability had been its most admired characteristic collapsed without a war or resistance. Soviet-style socialism is no more. A nontraditional road to capitalism is being paved. Instead of leading from feudal socage through the early manufacture plants, this road originated with state-owned economies whose declared primary objective was equality. Recent developments make an excellent reason for this economist, who studied the Soviet system for many years, to investigate the sources of the implosion and the prospects for the future.

We shall explore several essential questions. We shall discuss the relationship between the velvet revolutions in the outer ring of the Soviet empire and the collapse of the empire itself under its own weight. We shall investigate why the euphoria of the emergence has been followed by apathy and discontent. Did this have to be?

The blurry outlines of the system that was to take the place of the ancien rgime and the various roads to it were defined variously as: as quickly as possible, back to capitalism (by Jozsef Antall of Hungary), market economy without any buts (according to Vaclav Klaus of the then-Czechoslovakia), and back to civilization (according to Boris Yeltsin of Russia). These programs were not easy to realize. The load-bearing layer of the bourgeois revolutions, the layer of private entrepreneurs, had been destroyed and is not easy to reconstitute. The lofty ideals of the Enlightenment, in decline in the West, were of no help to the recent revolutionaries. The revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe were driven by the hatred of the totalitarian system and by a fascination with the Western way of life. The outlines of the future system, to replace the one in many respects egalitarian, even if in other respects the declarations of egalitarianism sounded hollow, were much less clear.

We shall try to show how rapidly planned economies are being converted into market economies and how quickly the one-party regimes were replaced by pluralistic multiparty systems. At the same time, we shall discuss the considerable costs that have accompanied the attempt to bridge the great chasm between the existing institutional frameworks and a modern economic and political system with shock therapy. The living standard has come down drastically and the envisaged pluralistic democracy manifests itself in a great variety of parties and political groupings, almost all of them without a wider popular support.

The results of the systemic change in each of the involved countries will be analyzed. We shall see the deep cleft between Central Europe, where the end of economic decline can be seen, and the former republics of the defunct Soviet Union, where the deepening chaos in the economy has had a devastating effect on the population.

Communism in Eastern and Central Europe is dead. The excommunists who are coming back to power have no intention and no wherewithal to bring it back. Yet, communism is still the state doctrine in China. The state, however, is gradually being driven out of the economy and the grip of ideology on peoples minds is weakening, as the author could observe during his recent extensive speaking tour of the country. As opposed to the situation in Eastern Europe, the reform in China is accompanied by continuous economic growth.

Questions are many and answers are few. However, if the reader will gain an insight into the issues and an understanding of the developments in these countries, my task is done.

The past role of the West in the developments and its potential future role in assisting the reconstruction of the regions will be discussed in the epilogue by Robert Schediwy of Webster University in Vienna.

The author wishes to acknowledge the interest and support of General Director Adolf Wala and Vice President Heinz Kienzl of the Austrian National Bank. Charlotte Mally provided invaluable secretarial assistance. My wife, Friederike, my son, Vladimir, and my grandson, Joshua, helped in many ways.

From Failed
Communism
to

Underdeveloped
Capitalism

Chapter 1
From Semifeudal Russia through Soviet Real Socialism to the CIS and Real Capitalism

---

The year 1991 saw the demise of an economic, political, and social system that had endured for three-quarters of a century. It also marked the end of a 300-year-old empire founded by Peter the Great and expanded by Catherine II and Joseph Stalin.

There is much dispute over the causes of the collapse, even if some reasons for it are clear enough. The Soviet Union was simply unable to keep pace economically with the industrial states of the West, yet its leaders not only were determined to maintain military parity with the worlds number one economic power, but even aimed for military superiority. Recent statistics have revealed that the Soviet national product, chronically exaggerated by the Soviet government as well as by CIA experts, was only about 28 percent that of the United States. And, while Soviet defense spending was about the same as U.S. defense spending in absolute terms, relative to the national product it was four times as much. The Soviet Union built military bases on all continents of the world until it finally bled itself to death economically in Afghanistan, its Vietnam.

Next page

1234567...76

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China»

Look at similar books to From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Bulent Gokay

Eastern Europe Since 1970: Decline of Socialism to Post-Communist Transition

Sanja Bahun

Cinema, State Socialism and Society in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1917-1989: Re-Visions

Weiqing Song

Chinas Relations with Central and Eastern Europe: From Old Comrades to New Partners

Nanette Funk

Gender Politics and Post-Communism: Reflections From Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Hubert Gabrisch

Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

Paul Stubbs

Social Policy, Poverty, and Inequality in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Agency and Institutions in Flux

Robert F. Byrnes

U.S. Policy Toward Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union: Selected Essays, 1956-1988

Adam Fagan

Green Activism in Post-Socialist Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Peter J. S. Duncan

Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives: Area Studies and Global Theories

Cătălin Albu

Accounting in Central and Eastern Europe

Csaba Csáki

The agrarian economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States: situation and perspectives, 1997, Parts 63-387

J.A.A.Sillince

Housing Policies in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

Discussion, reviews of the book From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.