Kornai presents an assessment of Hungary's transition from a socialist to a market economy. In a comprehensive critique of socialist economy reform, Kornai explains how the system's ideological and political attributes deny the idea of "market socialism." Although this reformist socialism ensured Hungary its transition to a market economy, macroeconomic disequalibria and financial crisis posed constant threats. Finally, Kornai provides examples of Hungary's economic stabilization and conditions for its sustainable growth into the present era.

This volume is a major contribution to Hungarian economic history since the middle of the nineteenth century. In this first volume of three on the evolution of that economy, the authors focus on the beginnings of the modern capitalist economy (1848-1914), on economic nationalism (1918-1944) and on the socialist attempt at modernization (1945-1989).