1992 Reports

Economics of the Transition Period

Nove, Alec

The title of this essay is, of course, “borrowed” from that of Nikolai Bukharin’s work of the same name, Ekonomika perekhodnogo perioda, which appeared in 1920 at the height of War Communism and referred to transition in a quite different direction. Here we will be discussing the problems of moving from an economy based on directive planning (in which many directives were ambiguous, irrational, or distorted in execution) to one based on market. There will be a mix here of theory and practice. It will not be possible to go into detail. Many countries are involved, at different levels of political culture and economic development, different also in the degree of imbalance “achieved” in the last years of Communist rule and in the extent to which market-type reforms and legal private activities already existed.