ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Today all the socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe are restoring or expanding forms of private ownership and enterprise. The process involves all these ‘transitional’ economies, regardless of the pace and achievements of their economic reform, including the former Soviet Union and excluding only Albania: differences are only of speed, mode and degree. There is privatization in a broad sense (the permission and encouragement of private enterprise and ownership), and in the narrow sense (the sale, gift or rental of state assets to private individuals and companies). This chapter considers the general case for privatization in the narrow sense and in the light of the system-specific characteristics of socialist economies; additional reasons are offered for the resilience of private ownership in socialist economies and the mounting pressure for its extension. Some more general issues are considered in the current process of privatization in the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe, with a more specific focus on the privatization process in Poland.
