ABSTRACT
Marxian critics of markets have argued that undesirable concentrations of economic and political power are associated with "monopoly capitalism." The passage of competition laws and the creation of competition agencies were often among the first tasks market-oriented governments set for themselves in the early 1990s, while advice from Western competition policy makers has been frequently proffered. Monopoly socialism was not simply an organizational matter either, since reforms that abolished traditional central planning and increased enterprise autonomy vis-a-vis the central and local administration revealed the continued existence of many barriers to market competition. Monopoly is generally understood to be a partial-equilibrium phenomenon, while inflation is a macroeconomic or general-equilibrium phenomenon. In the absence of capital markets, decision makers do not have independent information about the possible effects of dissolutions and divestitures. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
