The logic of the planned economy : the seeds of the collapse /

This important theoretical contribution goes beyond market-economy bias. Centrally planned economies (the System) face a fundamental dilemma: ideological legitimacy (the Marxist-Leninist Creed) versus economic performance. The System is torn between the demands of the Creed and the limited potential of planning, exacerbated by physical and social environmental constraints. Systemically unable to achieve qualitative, intensive growth, the System's final collapse is logically inevitable due to its unending confrontation with its environment. Economic reform of the System is merely a futile, stopgap measure, as events since late 1989 have shown (the original French version of this book, herein excellently translated, was published in early 1988). For economic efficiency to be attained, the Creed must be abandoned. In this confrontational paradigm, macroeconomic and microeconomic analysis are equally important. Although Janos Kornai alerted Western economists to the significance of the latter, the former has been neglected. Compare with Janos Kornai, Economics of Shortage (1980) and Jan Winiecki, Resistance to Change in the Soviet Economic System (1990). Recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections.-B. B. Brown Jr., Southern Oregon State College