The most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the successes and failures of twenty-seven countries post-communism transformation. Looking at life after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the book examines and contrasts why some countries have virtually completed their transformation to a liberal polity and economy, while others lag behind. Those that followed a strategy of early and steady reforms on economic, political, institutional and social dimensions have exhibited impressive results in economic performance, attracting foreign direct investment, dealing with the social costs of the transformation and establishing a liberal democracy. Unlike those that have moved gradually, with some countries in a frozen transition after being captured by powerful oligarch groups who have drained considerable state assets.

"This book analyzes both the consistent and changing elements in the Austrian School of Economics since its foundation in the late 19th Century up to the recent offspring of this School. It investigates the dynamic metamorphosis of the school, mainly with reference to its contact with representatives of history of economic thought"--

The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crisis was Henryk Grossman's most important, influential, and also most denounced work. As official Communist economic thought was petrifying, to comply with the needs of the Stalinist state in Russia, Grossman's book challenged the developing dogma. Combining Marx's method and insights with a comprehensive assessment of the very substantial literature on crisis theory, Grossman demonstrated how the capitalist system, even under supposedly ideal conditions, will break down economically. Grossman's recovery of Marx's explanations for capitalism's crises and tendency to break down is as timely as ever, and thanks to Jairus Banaji and Rick Kuhn, this wonderful, first full English translation is now available. The Law of Accumulation is the third of four volumes of Grossman's works.

The book analyzes the topic of judicial reforms in four countries of South-East Europe, focusing on two specific factors that have influenced the reforms in the past two decades: the role played by the European Union in light of the east Enlargement process and the legacies of the communist regimes. Specifically, the aim is to account for similarities and differences in the reform paths of Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, and Serbia. In each country, in fact, the influence of the EU policies has been differently mediated by national factors that, broadly conceived, may be considered as expressing the legacies of the past regimes. In some cases, these legacies challenged judicial reforms and inhibited the influence of the EU; in other cases, they were positively overcome by following the route suggested by the EU. Some explanatory factors for these differences will be proposed drawing from democratization studies, Europeanization literature, and comparative judicial systems.

The book focuses on countries having different status vis-a -vis the EU and differently involved, in term of timing, in the EU accession process: some of them are new member states entered in 2004 (Slovenia) or in 2007 (Romania); others were, until recently, acceding countries (Croatia) or candidates to the membership (Serbia). This comparison allows investigation of the power of EU conditionality in different phases of the EU enlargement process.vis-a -vis the EU and differently involved, in term of timing, in the EU accession process: some of them are new member states entered in 2004 (Slovenia) or in 2007 (Romania); others were, until recently, acceding countries (Croatia) or candidates to the membership (Serbia). This comparison allows investigation of the power of EU conditionality in different phases of the EU enlargement process.

The Social Costs approach to the globalised capitalist market economy has gained new relevance in recent years. The present situation is one of widespread and increasing deterioration of the social, cultural, democratic, and environmental frameworks of advanced capitalist market societies. This deterioration is indicated by the threats of unemployment, precarious working conditions and increasing income/status inequality, uneven geographical developments, and the exploitation and undermining of the institutional fabric of the society. It is aggravated by the rapid extension - at local, national, regional and global scales - of ecological disruption. So the global capitalist market economy is characterised by a great deal of instability and so-called true uncertainty, which largely undermine its coordinating and welfare-enhancing capacity. The view suggested by Karl William Kapp's seminal evolutionary open-systems approach is that these processes and problems are the outcome of a widening gap between private individualist economic, and societal values or, to use Karl Polanyi's terms, of the ever increasing disembeddedness of the economy from society and of the subjugation of society to the economy. The key actor in this process is business or, more specifically, it is the increasingly dominant, globalised, deregulated and disembedded hierarchical and power system of business enterprise. Current analyses of the global capitalist market economy are overdue to be undertaken making use of the powerful analytic frame of Karl William Kapp's open systems economics. 'Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism' examines this approach from a theoretical, conceptual, empirical, policy and case study level.

This book addresses the social and environmental justice challenge to live sustainably and well. It considers the consequences of our social, economic and environmental policy and governance decisions for this generation and the next. The book tests out ways to improve representation, accountability and re-generation. It addresses the need to take into account the ethical implications of policy and governance decisions in the short, medium and long term based on testing out the implications for self, other and the environment. This book recognizes the negative impact that humans have had on the Earth's ecosystem and recommends a less anthropocentric way of looking at policies and governance. The chapters discuss the geologic impact that people have had on the globe, both positive and negative, and brings awareness to the anthropocentric interventions that have influenced life on Earth during the Holocene era. Based on these observations, the authors discuss original ideas and critical reviews on ways to govern those who interpret the world in terms of human values and experience, and to conduct an egalitarian lifestyle. These ideas address the growing rise in the size of the ecological footprints of some at the expense of the majority, the growth in unsustainable food choices and of displaced people, and the need for a new sense of relationship with nature and other animals, among other issues. The chapters included in Balancing Individualism and Collectivism: Social and Environmental Justice encourage readers to challenge the sustainability agenda of the anthropocentric life. Proposed solutions to these unsustainable actions include structuralized interventions and volunteerism through encouragement and education, with a focus on protecting current and future generations of life through new governmental etiquette and human cognizance.

Many of the leading thinkers on dialectics in the Marxian tradition have collaborated here to put forward and debate challenging new perspectives on the nature and importance of dialectics. The issues dealt with range from the philosophical consideration of the precise nature of dialectical reasoning, to dialectics and economic theory, and to more concrete concerns such as how dialectics can help us think about globalization, freedom, inflation, and subjectivity.

European integration has had an ever deepening impact on the member states. The first wave of research concerned the process of institution building and policy developments at the European Union (EU) level. The second wave, on Europeanization used the resulting integration as an explanatory factor in understanding domestic political change and continuity. What is now necessary is to link our understanding of these bottom-up' and top-down' processes of integration and Europeanization. This book argues that a third wave of research on the EU is needed to adequately understand the increased interconnectedness between the European and national political levels. We posit that this third wave should be sensitive to the temporal dimension of European integration and Europeanization. In particular, we ask: how has Europeanization affected current modes of integration and cooperation in the EU?

Personal consumption accounts for two thirds of GDP, yet recent economic events have emphasised our limited ability to translate consumption patterns into policy. Steven Silver analyses this understudied area, exploring the network memberships that emerge from our everyday lives, and the consumption patterns these create.

In his book "Jurassic Park" (and in the movie based on the book), Michael Crichton describes a crazed professor who through techniques of genetic engineering manages to recreate the dinosaurs and giant ferns of 65 million years past. Once the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex is brought to life. a powerful dynamics sets in: evolution. The prehistoric world embarks on a collision course with man. Researching his book, Crichton had been reading up on paleontology and on the mathematical theory of evolution, catastrophes, and chaos. Crichton explains some of the twists of nonlinear mathematics that are rewriting not only thermodynamics, physics, and chemistry (that all grapple with evolving and turbulent processes) but also paleontology, genetics, medicine and even anthropology. Collapse and chaos is not limited to prehistoric animal kingdoms and ancient civilizations. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the political and economic chaos in its aftermath demonstrate that modern civilizations are just as vulnerable. This book aims at reexamining some main portions of the discipline of economics from the point of view of economic change and creativity. There are two aspects to this perspective. First, diversity and complexity. The range of different kinds of high technology products available to consumers and producers increases rapidly. Each product is the result of a long and complex production hierarchy. As these hierarchies grow, they deliver ever more diversified and complex high tech goods. Other hierarchies fall by the wayside.

Tackling the most pressing problem of our time - how capitalism, and business, can provide a future of wealth, equity and ecological integrity, this book is destined to be one of the most important business, economics and politics books of the year. Sir Jonathon Porritt, CBE, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is a leading influence on business and industry, the UK government's premier adviser on sustainable development and a top author, broadcaster and visionary. As our great economic machine grinds relentlessly forward into a future of declining fossil fuel supplies, climate change and ecosystem failure, humanity, by necessity, is beginning to question the very structure of the economy that has provided so much wealth, and inequity, across the world. In this fresh, politically charged analysis, Jonathon Porritt wades in on the most pressing question of the 21st century - can capitalism, as the only real economic game in town, be retooled to deliver a sustainable future?

Contents:
Foreword By Thomas D. Willett
1. Policy Ideas and Partisan Convergence
2. Paradigms, Coalitions, and Directional Shifts in Economic Policy
3. Deficit Reduction and Tax Reform in the Reagan-Thatcher Era
4. Deficit Reduction and Tax Reform under Clinton and Blair
5. Conclusion

This book gives an account of the motivations behind the primacy of the City of London, both as a domestic actor and as a global financial centre. It focuses on whether the hegemonic position of the City of London can be threatened by the globalization process and how this relates to its role as an international money laundering centre.

For many years a neglected figure, Nikolai Bukharin has recently been the subject of renewed interest in the West. Now regarded as a leading Marxist theorist, Bukharin's work has wide appeal to those interested in Soviet history and Marxist economics as well as to those concerned with theories of development and socialist economies.

The issue of planning prompted some of the fiercest debate in mid-twentieth century economics. Politics of Economic Planning collects together a number of papers from journals and contributed books that examine the problems of economic planning in a free society. They fall into three groups: Part 1 explains the idea of socialism and defines it in relation to democracy. Part 2 discusses problems of economic planning both in relation to political economy on the practice of planning and with the application of the theory of value to the conditions of a centrally directed economy. Part 3 examines the nature of economics.

This study of economic reforms throughout Eastern Europe covers the history of attempts at decentralization. The book: describes the centralized model and compares its requirements with the realities of socialist countries; discusses the economic policies of the post-Stalinist period; and examines the origin of the reforms which began in 1956, culminating in the Soviet economic reform of 1965 and the rehabilitation of profit. The countries it covers include the former USSR, the former East Germany and Hungary.

This volume focuses on the socio-political aspects of economic transformations in Eastern European socialist countries. Particular emphasis is laid on the problem of interrelations between the plan and the market and between economic incentives and social consumption. The book also examines economic and political factors in the wider political context, particularly looking at the question of democratization within industry and politics.

This highly topical study reflects on the current problems faced by social democratic parties in government when espousing policies of severe pragmatism and fiscal prudence, and provides an historical medium-term perspective to both parties' substantial changes in labour market policies. There is now a good deal of interest in the Third Way and the Neue Mitte, and this book provides much needed empirical detail, and solid analysis of the substance of these ideas. It will be of great interest to students and researchers in comparative politics, social democracy and economic policy.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203417542

This book presents a collection and analysis of original policy documents, newly translated into English, from a key period of Chinese development, providing both a current and a retrospective analysis of China's economic reform efforts. Topics dealt with include the evolution of Chinese economic strategy; economic planning and the spread of market mechanisms; technology transfer in industry; evolution of an agricultural system; the development of population policy; and foreign economic relations. The collection will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Chinese studies, but also to professionals and social scientists concerned with China but unable to read source documents in Chinese.

In Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below, Dario Azzellini offers an account of the Bolivarian Revolution from below. While authors on Venezuela commonly concentrate on former president Hugo Chavez and government politics, this book shows how workers, peasants and the poor in urban communities engage in building 21st century socialism through popular movements, communal councils, communes and fighting for workers' control. In a relationship of cooperation and conflict with the state, social transformation is approached on 'two tracks', from below and from above. Azzellini's fascinating account stands out because of the extensive empirical examples and original voices from movements, communal councils, communes and workers.

Series Information:
Harwood Fundamentals of Pure & Applied Economics