Understanding Economic Transitions explains the genesis, operation, and transformation of the centrally-planned socialist economy, which figured prominently in the lives of billions of people in twentieth-century Europe and Asia. Just as importantly, the centrally-planned socialist economy’s demise coincided with the shift from nonindustrial to industrial economy (and de-industrialization in some cases) and the onset of ICT-driven globalization. Using theory, empirics, and selected country case studies, this book teases out the enduring lessons from the myriad and fraught pathways of transition from socialism to capitalism.
Understanding Economic Transitions provides a self-contained, comprehensive, and authoritative treatment of modern economic systems. This textbook has four features of particular use to students: (i) Using the prism of comparative institutionalism, it melds theory and evidence to revisit the varieties of planned and market-driven systems today; (ii) It takes economic planning seriously in theory and practice (central, cooperative, or indicative) as the most prominent marker of the ever-changing boundaries between state and market; (iii) It focuses on the dynamics of systemic transition in formerly socialist countries by contextualizing them in terms of the whence (central planning), the how (modalities of transition), and the whither (illiberal or liberal capitalism) of politico-economic transformation; and (iv) It examines the profound impact on these structural processes of the post-1990 phase of economic globalization. With its clear, comprehensive content and useful pedagogical features, this textbook will prepare students to understand how economies transition and why.
Author(s): Berhanu Abegaz
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 323
City: Cham
Preface
Introduction
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Part ITheories of Comparative Economic Systems
1 Economic Systems
1.1 Institutions and Economic Order
Comparative Economic Analysis
The Institutions Hypothesis
1.2 Property Rights: Ownership Versus Control
The Static Approach to Comparing Economic Systems
The Dynamic Approach to Comparing Economic Systems
1.3 The Neoclassical Theory of Economic Systems
1.4 The Emergence of the Centrally Planned Economy
1.5 A Synopsis of the Country Case Studies
References
2 Economic Planning in Various Settings
2.1 Why Do For-Profit Firms Exist and in What Form?
2.2 Varieties of Capitalism: Liberal Versus Statist
2.3 Intellectual History: The Socialist Controversies
2.4 Varieties of Socialism: Stalinist Versus Market Socialist Cooperatives
2.5 Varieties of Self-Management: Yugoslav Versus Mondragon
The Yugoslav Model of Self-management
The Mondragon Model of Self-Management
2.6 Theories of Economic Planning
The LAH Price-Guided Planning Procedure
The Malinvaud Price-Guided Procedure
Quantity-Guided Planning Procedures
References
Part IITwo Canonical State Socialisms
3 The Soviet CPE I: The Planning Process in an Industrialized Economy
3.1 The Transition from Peripheral Capitalism to Autarkic Socialism
The Leninist State
The Stalinist State
The Post-Stalinist State
The Gorbachevian State
The Yeltsin-Putin State
3.2 The Institutional Architecture of the Soviet Economy
3.3 Economic Ministries and State Committees
3.4 The Tech-Prom-Fin-Plan: Five-Year and Annual Plans
The Organizational Structure of Soviet Planning
The Method of Material Balancing
Input–Output Analysis
Financial Balances: Money and Credit
Financial Balances: Fiscal and Macro
Labor Balances
Investment Balances
The Five-Year Plans in a Nutshell
References
4 The Soviet CPE II: Plan Implementation
4.1 The Shortage Economy Redux
4.2 The Khozraschet Enterprise and Plan Execution
Behavioral Rules
Motivation and Success Indicators
Incentive Funds and Bonus Functions
4.3 The Second Economy
4.4 Economic Outcomes
References
5 The Chinese CPE: Planning in a Semi-industrial Economy
5.1 China’s Initial Conditions and Peculiarities
5.2 The Chinese Model of Socialism: Commune, GLF, and CR
5.3 Chinese Economic Planning
References
Part IIISystemic Transition in Theory and Practice
6 The Nature of Post-socialist Transitions
6.1 CPE Economic Performance: Growth and Inequality
Economic Growth
Economic Inequality
6.2 Reform Versus Transformation
The Failure of Bureaucratic Perfectionism
Transition: Reformation Versus Transformation
6.3 Initial Conditions and Circumstances
6.4 The Modalities of Systemic Transformation
Macroeconomic Stabilization (S)
Market Liberalization (L)
State-Assets Privatization (P)
Sequencing the Pillars of Transition
Speed of Transition
6.5 Corruption in Hybrid Economies
References
7 The Autarkic Russian Road to Capitalism
7.1 The Autarkic, Nationalist, and Integration Roads
7.2 The Gorbachev Reforms
7.3 The Yeltsin Reforms
Russian Stabilization (S)
Russian Liberalization (L)
Russian Privatization (P)
7.4 Putin’s Political Capitalism
References
8 The Nationalist Chinese Road to Capitalism
8.1 The Nationalist Road
8.2 De-collectivization Begets TVEs
8.3 Urban Collectives and SEZs
8.4 The Third Phase: Middle-Income Trap
8.5 The Bear and the Panda
References
9 Two Integrationist Variants: Poland and Vietnam
9.1 The Baltic, CEE, and SEE Countries
9.2 The Modalities of EU Accession
9.3 The Peculiarities of Polish Socialism
9.4 Polish Shock Therapy
9.5 The Peculiarities of Vietnamese Socialism
9.6 Vietnam’s Doi Moi Reforms
References
Part IVTransition under the New Globalization
10 Pathways of Integration in the Age of Global Value Chains
10.1 Late Industrialization
10.2 The New Globalization
10.3 China, Poland, and Vietnam as GVC Hubs
10.4 Global Integration Under the Developmental State
References
11 Comparative Economics Redux
11.1 Economic Planning Under the Two Capitalisms
11.2 Post-socialist Comparative Economics
References
Data Appendix
Glossary
Index
