ABSTRACT
Voucher schemes, auctions, multi-coloured coupons and the other paraphernalia of various official privatization schemes have been honoured here only in the breach, while the somewhat shady spontaneous version of privatization has uncustomarily received the observance. The improved economic environment in Russia, most particularly the liberalization of prices and the partial hardening of enterprise budget constraints, has led to improved performance from many state-owned enterprises even prior to privatization. 'State ownership' of the means of production, in itself, leaves a host of questions unanswered. The official Soviet system did not attempt to implement such an extreme form of central planning. The ongoing Russian privatization plan includes three variants for large enterprises. Privatization cheques counter the bias towards enterprise insiders in the privatization process, but they certainly do not eliminate insider advantages. By privatizing most non-defence state-owned enterprises more-or-less simultaneously, special pleading has been held to a minimum.
