Gorbachov: economic reform and eastern europe

The volume focuses its attention on problems of economic reform in Soviet-type economies within a framework of what might loosely be called institutionalist economics, that is to say, that the discipline of economics has as one of its major objects of study, an understanding of the manner in which economic systems existing under either 'capitalism' or 'socialism' reproduce the forms of rationality and irrationality they display, the reasons why they manifest themselves in the manner that they do, and the possible options open to remedying them.
Special emphasis is laid on highlighting the original features of the reform attempts of each country within the Soviet bloc, the parallels between the Soviet economy in the twenties and in the eighties and the East European response to perestroika. The introductory and concluding essays deal with the legacy of Bukharinism in the Soviet Union and the unique institutional characteristics of Soviet-type economies all of which have contributed to make the question of reform in these systems not only politically desirable but economically essential. The interest of the volume is heightened by a series of upto date commentaries on contemporary developments in the socialist economies of Europe which appeared in The Indian Post in the course of 1987 and early 1988. They are reproduced here in an unabridged form for the first time.