ABSTRACT

This is an appraisal of the transformation that has taken place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The book addresses two central issues: how has the state socialist system of party monopoly and central planning dissolved? And how are these societies recreating a communist antithesis - civil society and free markets? The contributors attribute the collapse of state socialism to ideological erosion, combined with economic deterioration resulting from improperly defined property rights.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction