Acta Oeconomica 45. (1993)

1993 / 1-2. szám - Szamuely László: Transition from State Socialism: Whereto and Hon? (Comments on the Inquiry Conducted by Acta Oeconomica)

1 L. SZAMUELY: TRANSITION FROM STATE SOCIALISM 3 has an advantage over the other contributors—because he is acquainted ;(vith their replies to the inquiry and thus he can attempt to benefit from this fact. First, the present study deals with the content of the process of transforma­tion of CPEs and looks for an explanation to the unprecedented economic slump and possibly lasting depression. Second, it deals with the strategies for economic recov­ery and restructuring; namely, with problems of stabilization and privatization— which sometimes look like a dichotomy. Third, it weighs the chances of success and the conditions for securing it. The content of the transformation process The transformation of the European countries which formerly practised Soviet­­type state socialism consists of a number of simultaneous and different processes. For instance, Béla Kádár emphasizes in his contribution, that “beside the change of economic model, a further important aspect of the transition is the change of political model, the change of path of economic growth, and the change of emphasis in foreign trade”, (p. 294)2 These processes are interconnected but sometimes also contradictory. The contradictions cannot be simply viewed as barriers to be removed by proper and/or opportune legal regulation or a particular organizational technique. In our percep­tion the main processes of transformation go far beyond the institutional changes in politics or economy that the notion of systemic change implies. (a) In the domain of politics one-party monolitic state socialism has been replaced by pluralistic political regimes. Though in some countries these regimes can hardly be called parliamentary democracies (for instance, in Russia and some other post-Soviet successor states no nationwide political parties exist), there are everywhere political groups or individuals who in their struggle for power openly compete for the confidence of the electorate, the citizens and—what is an extremely important phenomenon—of international public opinion in order to gain the much needed foreign economic, political and other support. The political process making progress towards establishing democracy coin­cided with the fall of the Soviet empire and the decolonization of its outer zone and inner core. Thus in many cases the efforts to create a liberal democracy have coalesced with the striving for national self-determination, separation, and the foun­dation of pure national states. The latter dream of founding new national states is behind time by one or two hundred years, at least in Europe. These two kinds of endeavour can come up against each other in countries with multinational societies or simply with ethnically mixed populations. As the 2Here and below the page numbers in brackets refer to the Debate...(1992) Acta Oeconomica 45» 1993

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