The basic features of postcommunist capitalism in Eastern Europe : firms in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia /

Based on 46 case studies of industrial enterprises in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, including personal interviews with many CEOs, and utilizing enterprise surveys conducted by others, King (sociology, Yale Univ.) analyzes the post-Communist transformation from socialism to "capitalism" in this part of eastern Europe from sociological rather than strictly economic perspectives. The author focuses on emerging ownership patterns and their implications for industrial organization and performance. He identifies a number of transition strategies and describes the roles of managers, employees, state officials, and foreign investments, including foreign partners, in the privatization and restructuring of state-owned and state-run industries. Discussion of individual firms and comparisons of different strategies offer interesting, though not entirely new, insights into the transition process. However, this study does not yield a clear set of principles because the author's interpretation of the material and predictions of likely consequences of the developments described are rather tentative and not clearly structured. Stylistically (and grammatically) this volume would have benefited from more rigorous editing. Tables; several appendixes illustrating the author's research approach; good bibliography and index. For social scientists interested in east European transition economies. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. H. D. Renning emeritus, California State University, Stanislaus