Publisher's Synopsis
`...a timely and important contribution to the debate over the future of Eastern Europe. It offers the serious reader a chance to sample the neglected voices of reason and pluralism which have been shouted down by the monetarist orthodoxy in discussions of how post-communist economies should make their way in the new competitive climate of the post-Cold-War world...One of the outstanding features of this book is the way it focuses attention on what East European policymakers can learn from the economic rise of East Asia.' - Dr David Williams, University of Sheffield;`Discussion of economic reform in Eastern Europe has often been dominated by the misleading view that there is one road to the market and one destination at the end of that road. Drawing on the East Asian experience, this collection of essays in honour of Alec Nove reminds us of the ideological nature of this perspective. An understanding of Asian capitalism and the Chinese experience serves to expand the range of political as well as economic possibilities in Eastern Europe, and constitutes an important antidote to current orthodoxy' - Stephan Haggard, Professor, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego;The themes in this book concern former Soviet-type societies: 1) Is the capitalist world system willing and able to absorb these newcomers or are they condemned to 'Third-worldization'? 2) Is the neoliberal advice of simultaneous political democratization and economic liberalization a viable path? 3) Is the East Asian model of authoritarianism and governed markets a better option? 4) Can the revolution of rising expectations be harnessed into a new structure of accumulation based on class polarisations? 5) Are there lessons in Chinese market-socialism? In this topical and timely collection, these questions are answered by an interdisciplinary and international team of specialists