Government versus Markets: The Changing Economic Role of the State[Правительство И Рынки: Меняющаяся Экономическая Роль Государства]

The book “Government versus Markets: The Changing Economic Role of the State” is the first comprehensive treatment available in the literature of the economic role of the state in a historical and world perspective. It addresses the fundamental question of what governments should do, or have attempted to do, in economic activities in past and recent periods. It also speculates on what they are likely or may be forced to do in future years. Although other recent titles in economics deal with normative theories, public choice theories, welfare state analysis, social protection, and the like, no other book has the same breadth or depth specifically on the state’s viable economic role. The author’s knowledge of several languages has allowed him to draw from different and often inaccessible previous publications. The investigation assembles a large set of statistical information that should prove useful to scholars and policy makers in the perennial discussion of government’s optimal economic roles. It will become an essential reference work on the analytical borders between the market and the state and on what a reasonable “exit strategy” from the current fiscal crises should be. The first chapter of the book excerpts from which are published here gives the general outlook of the problem of the role of government in present world situation and in the foreseeable future. The author argues that the most probable development would be decrease of the role of government spending and taxation and the shift of focus of government policy to regulation and targeted public assistance.