To what extent can contemporary socialist economies be reformed by the introduction of markets? The question is usually debated in either a Chinese or an East European context; this collection of eleven essays is unique in taking the first steps toward a comparative analysis. Twenty years of experience with reforms in Hungary and a decade of experimentation with reforms in China proivde a critical mass of evidence for analyzing the problems endemic to cnetrally planned economies and the dilemmas faced in efforts to reform them. In reflecting on the Chinese and East European experiences, these essays trace the shift from a conception of reform as a mix of planning and makrets within the state sector to a socialist mixed economy with implications for the emergence of new social groups and autonomous social organizations. The essays exemplify a new perspective in the study of state socialism that changes the focus from ideologies to economic institutions, examining how the activities of subordinate groups place limits on the power of state elites. The authors include scholars who have shaped debates in Eastern Europe and whose work is now stimulating much discussion in China, as well as representatives of a younger generation of economists, sociologists, and political scientists writing on the basis of field research recently conducted in factories, cities, and villages in China and Eastern Europe. The contributors are: Wlodzimierz Brus, Walter D. Connor, Zhiren Lin, Victor Nee, Susan Shirk, David Stark, Ivan Szelenyi, and Martin King Whyte. An introductory essays surveys recent theories and research on state socialism and outlines a new institutional perspective for understanding the dilemmas of partial reforms, the political cycles of reform and retrenchment, and the role of subordinate groups in stimulating changes outside the state sector.

Capitalism is hegemonic today not because it is the best we fallible humans can do but because it supports, and is supported by, special interests of immense power. This book argues that Economic Democracy, a competitive economy of democratically run enterprises that replaces capitalist financial markets with more suitable institutions, will be more efficient than capitalism, more rational in its growth, more democratic, more egalitarian, and less alienating.Against Capitalism is an ambitious book, drawing on philosophical analysis, economic theory, and considerable empirical evidence to advance its controversial thesis. It examines both conservative and liberal forms of capitalism; it compares Economic Democracy to other models of socialism; and it considers the transition to Economic Democracy from advanced capitalist societies, from economies built on the Soviet model, and from conditions of underdevelopment. The book concludes with some unconventional reflections on historical materialism, ideal communism, and the future of Marxism.

This book brings together some 15 papers drawn from the 330 papers presented at the Third Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics in Stockholm, Sweden in June 1991. Part 1 outlines a basic theory of institutional change; Parts 2 and 3 examine case studies in international experience with institutional change. The authors of the original papers include Douglas North, Amitai Etzioni, Oliver Williamson, as well as eminent scholars from Eastern and Western Europe, representing views and analyses from ten different countries.

This book investigates the changing opportunities in higher education for different social groups during China’s transition from the socialist regime to a market economy. The first part of the book provides a historical and comparative analysis of the development of the idea of meritocracy, since its early origins in China, and in more recent western thought. The second part then explores higher education reforms in China, the part played by supposedly meritocratic forms of selection, and the implications of these for social mobility. Based on original empirical data, Ye Liu sheds light on the socio-economic, gender and geographical inequalities behind the meritocratic façade of the Gaokao (高考). Liu argues that the Chinese philosophical belief in education-based meritocracy had a modern makeover in the Gaokao, and that this ideology induces working-class and rural students to believe in upward social mobility through higher education. When the Gaokao broke the promise of status improvement for rural students, they turned to the Chinese Communist Party and sought political connections by actively applying for its membership. This book reveals a bleak picture of visible and invisible inequality in terms of access to and participation in higher education in contemporary China. Written in an accessible style, it offers a valuable resource for researchers and non-specialist readers alike.

An examination of how private business is conducted through personal ties in China's market economy.

`The book is well written and clearly structured, bringing together much dispersed material. The most interesting part of the book is the case study of the Czech engineering firm CKD. The case study gives an insight into the continuing processes of transition: transition is a process, rather than a jump from Socialism to capitalism. The author provides solid evidence on the ways in which adjusting to the market has proved painful, and in the end unsuccessful for CKD, which has been merged with another firm. Overall, Transformation at Work provides a valuable insight into the realities of the transition process at the enterprise level′ - Employee Relations In this book, Anna Pollert questions the values hidden in the burgeoning literature on `transformation′, and addresses the main concerns arising from these. In exploring the key issues of post-communist transformation, the author discusses important theoretical issues about the nature of change and continuity, such as historical, socio-economic and political effects of transformation, the broad problems of how workers and their organizations respond to change from command to capitalist economies, and case studies of how managers, workers and trade unionists experience these changes within their organizations. Transformation at Work explores the key issues of post-communist transformation in Eastern Europe. The author discusses important aspects of the nature of change and continuity including: historical, socio-economic and political effects; how workers and their organizations respond to change from command to capitalist economies; and how managers, workers and trade unionists experience change within their organizations.

Labour in Transition (1992) examines the massive transformations undertaken by state socialist regimes at the end of the 1980s. It traces developments in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China, in particular the impact of changes in the labour process and broader political economy. Detailed empirical analysis of reform processes is effectively combined with a broader comparative examination of capitalism, socialism and the process of transition to new social formations.

Based on Party and state documents, Chinese newspaper reports and surveys, the Chinese and Western scholarly literature and the author's own fieldwork, this important study examines the private sector as a case study of the mechanics of reform in China, emphasizing the relationships among local officials, private businesses, and central policy. The book traces the growth of private business in China since 1978 and focuses on the interaction between private sector policy and other reforms and examines how this has affected China's political economy.

Examines the historical evolution of contemporary China studies in the United States, reflecting the growth and maturation of the field since the Communist Party seized power in 1949.

The growth of the Chinese economy in the last decade or so has attracted a lot of analytical attention. This report addresses the functioning of collectives in a market system, specifically the village of Nanjie in Henan Province, which had recollectivized, and the village of Liuminying, near Beijing, which had never decollectivized. The authors briefly introduce these villages, as well as Hanchunhe (also near Beijing) and Huaxi in Jiangsu Province, and their history, and then analyze various aspects of the functioning of collective villages in the Chinese market. Chapters: org. and mgmt.; wage and labor system; welfare and benefits; gender roles and relations;& the corp. village.