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Reflections on the Privatisation Issue

In: The Transformation of the Communist Economies

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  • Keith Cowling

Abstract

Privatisation now has a clear centrality within the restructuring of the economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, implying a sharp discontinuity with previous reforms. Over the previous thirty years or so reform concentrated on decentralisation and marketisation — ownership was not seen as one of the central issues, but, as Gomulka (1991) puts it, the present reform is ‘… no longer the marketisation of Soviet socialism but the embracement of Western (welfare state) capitalism’. The movement now is away from simply increasing enterprise autonomy within the state apparatus. In this paper I want to consider some of the issues surrounding this process of privatisation, first going back to the historical debate over capitalism versus state control, then reconsidering the efficiency arguments in the current context before leading into a discussion of alternative ways forward, making clear the necessity of economic democracy for efficiency, looking at the possible linkages between privatisation and democratisation and finally considering the economic environment within which the privatisation/democratisation process gets under way, arguing for managed trade rather than ‘free trade’, that is trade managed by communities rather than by the institutions of the free market.

Suggested Citation

  • Keith Cowling, 1995. "Reflections on the Privatisation Issue," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Ha-Joon Chang & Peter Nolan (ed.), The Transformation of the Communist Economies, chapter 6, pages 162-176, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-23916-0_6
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-23916-0_6
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