Gérard Roland «The evolution of Post communist economic systems»

Опубликовано 21 апреля 2016, 14:59

Honorary lectrure of Gérard Roland (University of California, Berkeley) "The evolution of Post communist economic systems"
Moderator: V. Polterovich (CEMI, MSU)

'In this lecture, I will propose a new conceptualization of transition processes in Eastern Europe versus China.
I argue that with the perspective of time, transition outcomes in Central and Eastern Europe better understood by the dynamics of state erosion started under communism rather than by particular transition policy choices. Post-communist states, while being autocratic or imperfectly democratic, are very different from the communist monopoly of power that existed under the socialist system. They have become a turf war for kleptocratic networks for the purpose of corrupt enrichment. Reforming post-communist kleptocratic states to establish high quality institutions is a new and very different challenge from the transition away from the communist state and the socialist economy.
The case of China is very different. China made a major institutional innovation in world history: establish a successful market economy under absolute communist rule, with the goal of consolidating the power of the Chinese communist party. The Chinese system faces specific survival challenges in the future (ideological vacuum, corruption, external environment), that I will review, but there are few hopes of major political reform in the short and medium run.'