Search results for ""Author János Kornai""

This major book presents an objective and penetrating economic analysis of stabilization and reform in Eastern Europe, combined with a compassionate plea for individual rights and solidarity.Janos Kornai - one of the most famous Hungarian economists of his generation - focuses on two main issues: first, the problems of stabilization and adjustment, which are painful but necessary conditions of sustainable growth and second, the reform of the 'premature welfare state' of Eastern European countries, which is disproportionately large in relation to the resources available and which was hitherto managed in a highly centralized, bureaucratic and paternalistic way.Struggle and Hope goes beyond most other books on the transition process by placing considerable emphasis on the understanding of the ethical implications and the historical roots of each problem, and also the political conditions and consequences of change. Although economic efficiency is extremely important, it is not the exclusive criterion; ethical principles of individual sovereignty and solidarity must also receive particular attention.Professor Kornai's insightful analysis will become required reading for all those concerned with the process of post-socialist transition.

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This major book presents an objective and penetrating economic analysis of stabilization and reform in Eastern Europe, combined with a compassionate plea for individual rights and solidarity.Janos Kornai - one of the most famous Hungarian economists of his generation - focuses on two main issues: first, the problems of stabilization and adjustment, which are painful but necessary conditions of sustainable growth and second, the reform of the 'premature welfare state' of Eastern European countries, which is disproportionately large in relation to the resources available and which was hitherto managed in a highly centralized, bureaucratic and paternalistic way.Struggle and Hope goes beyond most other books on the transition process by placing considerable emphasis on the understanding of the ethical implications and the historical roots of each problem, and also the political conditions and consequences of change. Although economic efficiency is extremely important, it is not the exclusive criterion; ethical principles of individual sovereignty and solidarity must also receive particular attention.Professor Kornai's insightful analysis will become required reading for all those concerned with the process of post-socialist transition.

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Overcentralization in Economic Administration (Oxford, 1959) was the first book written by an Eastern European and published in the West that openly criticized socialist central planning. In this work the distinguished economist János Kornai begins a lifelong study of the economic organization of centrally planned economies. Professor Kornai's aim in this book was to observe the reality of the working socialist system, and to draw conclusions that were not distorted by the laws of Marxist political economy. He provided a lucid and coherent account of conditions, along with normative recommendations which influenced the Hungarian reform process, culminating in the economic changes of 1968. Professor Kornai identified several systematic failures of the centrally planned economy and gave a prescient account of weak economic performance and eventual disintegration. His argument for radical rather than partial change makes this book essential reading for those interested in the economics of transition in Eastern Europe.

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This volume is a major contribution to Hungarian economic history since the middle of the nineteenth century. In this first volume of three on the evolution of that economy, the authors focus on the beginnings of the modern capitalist economy (1848-1914), on economic nationalism (1918-1944) and on the socialist attempt at modernization (1945-1989).

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