The Decay of the Command Economies
The Decay of the Command Economies

Summary/Abstract: The worldwide debate between "gradualists" and "radicals" about the prospects of the former socialist countries' economic transformation does not seem to have resulted in a better understanding of their painful transition. Can gradualists or radicals, East European or Western economists, agree on only one very complex question: Where did that transformation really start? I agree fully with those analysts who assert that capitalism cannot be implemented "by design.” But neither will a modern market economy and dominant private ownership develop on its own in these countries. East European governments and political and economic structures cannot easily disentangle themselves from those systemic mechanisms that finally led to the collapse of the socialist system and that still keep most East European countries "hostage." [...]

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