ABSTRACT
Analysis of mass privatization in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland shows their privatization has been much slower than expected except for East Germany. There was success in the privatization of shops and small business only. In Hungary the desire to sell large enterprises at a fair price, has slowed down privatization. Privatization by direct sale method requires valuation and monitoring against corruption. Hungarian privatization is by direct sale, under the monitoring of the State Privatization Agency, and “with an emphasis on foreign joint ventures”. According to Bolton and Roland, privatization through sales has been dismissed too, on grounds of the low level of private wealth and valuation problems in the absence of capital markets. The conviction that the gradualism of post-war communist reforms was responsible for their ultimate failure, led to a temptation on the part of many new political leaders to pursue rapid privatization.
