TOL STORE BY TOPIC "economy"

Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor

The transition from socialism in Eastern Europe is not an isolated event, but part of a larger shift in world capitalism: the transition from Fordism to flexible (or neoliberal) capitalism. Using a blend of ethnography and economic geography, Elizabeth C. Dunn shows how management technologies like niche marketing, accounting, audit, and standardization make up flexible capitalism’s unique form of labor discipline. This new form of management constitutes some workers as self-auditing, self-regulating actors who are disembedded from a social context while defining others as too entwined in social relations and unable to self-manage.
Privatizing Poland examines the effects privatization has on workers’ self-concepts; how changes in "personhood" relate to economic and political transitions; and how globalization and foreign capital investment affect Eastern Europe’s integration into the world economy. Dunn investigates these topics through a study of workers and changing management techniques at the Alima-Gerber factory in Rzeszow, Poland, formerly a state-owned enterprise, which was privatized by the Gerber Products Company of Fremont, Michigan.

Alima-Gerber instituted rigid quality control, job evaluation, and training methods, and developed sophisticated distribution techniques. The core principle underlying these goals and strategies, the author finds, is the belief that in order to produce goods for a capitalist market, workers for a capitalist enterprise must also be produced. Working side-by-side with Alima-Gerber employees, Dunn saw firsthand how the new techniques attempted to change not only the organization of production, but also the workers’ identities. Her seamless, engaging narrative shows how the employees resisted, redefined, and negotiated work processes for themselves.

Restructuring Regional and Local Economies: Towards a Comparative Study of Scotland and Upper Silesia

Throughout both Western Europe and the former Soviet bloc, there has been a transition away from traditional heavy industry in certain peripheral areas. This has necessitated a complete restructuring of local economies of such regions. This volume brings together researchers and practitioners from Scotland and Poland to compare their experiences of regional development and restructuring in areas of former heavy industry. As Poland approaches EU entry, the comparisons have greater salience; the Polish are eager to learn from Western experience while the West will become more involved in Central European development. The book is divided into four main sections: the first examining economic transformation and restructuring; the second focusing on social partnerships and their role in regional economic development; the third looking at enterprise initiatives and development; and the final section questioning the role of FDI. It concludes by bringing together the findings from both countries, critically analysing the different policies, incentives and multi-level structures involved in regional economic development. In doing so, it aims to provide a fresh perspective on the relevant policy matters and stresses the importance of building appropriate institutional capacity to promote development.

One of the central characteristics of socialist states and societies has been the absence of trust--between the state and the citizens, and then among citizens themselves. The process of developing trust is thus a major issue facing post-Socialist countries, and this book brings together a group of leading scholars to examine barriers to and bulwarks of trust in theoretical, cross-national, and topical perspectives. From the distinctive paradox of illegal organizations--such as the Mafiya--relying on trust within but undermining it without, to the effects of transparency, the authors examine the bases of trust and the effects of its presence or absence. Throughout the analysis is grounded in the interaction of individuals and their social, political, and economic environments.

Romania is one of the largest, yet one of the poorest, of the ten Central and Eastern European countries which have applied for membership in the European Union. Its agriculture is still a major component of the national economy, and is even more important in the social life and environment of the country. This book reports the results of a number of recent studies on different aspects of the reform policies in the Romanian agri-food sector during its transition towards a market-oriented system. As it is easy to identify the problems of Romanian agriculture, it is a challenge to recommend solutions. The conclusions reached in this examination are not only of domestic importance, but are also relevant to several other economies in Central and Eastern Europe, and indeed for many post-socialist countries where the agri-food sector still is a major contributor to the economy and is a principle vehicle for rural development. The preparation and publication of this work is apparent by virtue of the huge amount of education, enlightenment and persuasion that lies ahead.

Can Russia ever become a normal, free-market, democratic society? Why have so many reforms failed since the Soviet Union’s collapse? In this highly-original work, Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy argue that Russia’s geography, history, and monumental mistakes perpetrated by Soviet planners have locked it into a dead-end path to economic ruin.

Shattering a number of myths that have long persisted in the West and in Russia, The Siberian Curse explains why Russia’s greatest assets—its gigantic size and Siberia’s natural resources—are now the source of one of its greatest weaknesses. For seventy years, driven by ideological zeal and the imperative to colonize and industrialize its vast frontiers, communist planners forced people to live in Siberia. They did this in true totalitarian fashion by using the GULAG prison system and slave labor to build huge factories and million-person cities to support them.

Today, tens of millions of people and thousands of large-scale industrial enterprises languish in the cold and distant places communist planners put them—not where market forces or free choice would have placed them. Russian leaders still believe that an industrialized Siberia is the key to Russia’s prosperity. As a result, the country is burdened by the ever-increasing costs of subsidizing economic activity in some of the most forbidding places on the planet. Russia pays a steep price for continuing this folly—it wastes the very resources it needs to recover from the ravages of communism.

Hill and Gaddy contend that Russia’s future prosperity requires that it finally throw off the shackles of its Soviet past by shrinking Siberia’s cities. Only by facilitating the relocation of population to western Russia, closer to Europe and its markets, can Russia achieve sustainable economic growth.

Unfortunately for Russia, there is no historical precedent for shrinking cities on the scale that will be required. Downsizing Siberia will be a costly and wrenching process. But there is no alternative. Russia cannot afford to keep the cities left by communist planners out in the cold.

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, former Communist Party leaders in Central Asia were faced with the daunting task of building states where they previously had not existed -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their task was complicated by the institutional and ideological legacy of the Soviet system as well as by a more actively engaged international community. These nascent states inherited a set of institutions that included bloated bureaucracies, centralized economic planning, and patronage networks. Some of these institutions survived, others have mutated, and new institutions have been created.

Experts on Central Asia here examine the emerging relationship between state actors and social forces in the region. Through the prism of local institutions, the authors reassess both our understanding of Central Asia and of the state-building process more broadly. They scrutinize a wide array of institutional actors, ranging from regional governments and neighborhood committees to transnational and non-governmental organizations. With original empirical research and theoretical insight, the volume's contributors illuminate an obscure but resource-rich and strategically significant region.

Economic Liberalization and Integration Policy : Options for Eastern Europe and Russia

After the 1998 Russian economic crisis, there are new opportunities for sustained growth in many countries of the former Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, the authors of this book analyze the dynamics of macroeconomic and structural developments in Eastern Europe and Russia, with special attention paid to problems of international and national integration, "Dutch disease" and natural resource dependency, and distortions in institutional reforms. The analysis also sheds light on how these problems have implications for cooperation among OECD-countries. A critical focus is on institutional adjustment and learning, human capital formation, trade and foreign investment. The political economy challenges of stability and growth in the region are highlighted. New empirical findings and comparative policy analysis - including in the field of natural resource policy - are major elements in this publication.

Central Asia’s first decade of independence was disappointing for those who envisioned a transition from Soviet republics to independent states with market economies and democratic political systems. The region was given a "second chance" to address social and economic problems, but the Soviet-era leaders have been more interested in exploiting state resources and controlling their populations than in implementing democratic and regional reforms.
Central Asia, a critical battlefield in the war on terror, is vitally important and still unfamiliar even to many foreign policy specialists. Regional expert Martha Brill Olcott highlights the deep contradiction running through U.S. policy toward Central Asia. Partnerships with antidemocratic regimes have created long-term security risks and the international community has remained complicit in its lack of effective engagement. As recent events in Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan demonstrate, tensions in the region lie close to the surface: If we are to prevent these states from descending into chaos, the international community must identify solutions to the economic, political, and social challenges confronting them.

Development on the Periphery: Democratic Transitions in Southern and Eastern Europe

In Development on the Periphery, noted textbook author Howard J.Wiarda tackles the important question of development in Southern and Eastern Europe. Both areas have undergone impressive transitions to democracy, experienced vast social changes, embraced open markets, developed Western political party systems, and joined the EU and NATO. However, the differences between the regions, and in particular, their individual countries, show us that development occurs by many routes-and that culture, geographic location, and timing do matter. Students of Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and transitions to democracy will benefit from this accessible and thorough comparative study.

The 2006 Economic and Product Market Databook for TBilisi, Georgia

In performing various economic analyses for its clients, I have occasionally been asked to investigate the market potential for various products and services in Georgia. The purpose of this study is to understand the density of demand within Georgia and the extent to which T’Bilisi might be used as a point of distribution within Europe. From an economic perspective, however, T’Bilisi does not represent a population within rigid geographical boundaries, rather, it represents an area of dominant influence over markets in adjacent areas. This influence varies from one industry to another, but also from one period of time to another. In what follows, I summarize the economic potential for T’Bilisi over the next five years for hundreds of industries, categories and products. The goal of this report is to report the real economic potential, or what an economist calls the latent demand, represented by T’Bilisi when defined as an area of dominant influence. The reader needs to realize that latent demand may or may not represent real sales. For many items, latent demand is clearly observable in sales, as in the case for food or housing items. Consider, however, the category "satellite launch vehicles". Clearly, there are no launch pads in T’Bilisi used by the space industry to launch satellites. However, the core benefit of the vehicles (e.g. telecommunications, etc.) is "consumed" by the area served by T’Bilisi. Without T’Bilisi, in other words, the market for satellite launch vehicles would be lower for the population in Georgia, Europe, or the world in general. One needs to allocate, therefore, a portion of the worldwide economic demand for launch vehicles to both Europe and T’Bilisi. The data presented are the result of various spatial econometric and time-series forecasting models which, for each category presented, are applied to forecast and allocate demand across all countries of the world and major distribution centers or centers of dominant influence within each country. This is accomplished knowing that economic fundamentals (e.g. income) generally vary from one city to another within a given country over time. In this report, I report the allocation for each category for T’Bilisi as an area of dominant influence in Georgia and, potentially, Europe. Important Caveat. Category definitions may overlap. The sum of multiple categories, therefore, may double count.

How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

How Capitalism Was Built tells the story of how the former communist countries in East and Central Europe, Russia, and Central Asia became market economies from 1989 to 2006. It discusses preconditions, political breakthroughs, and alternative reform programs. Three major chapters deal with the deregulation of prices and trade, price stabilization, and privatization. Early radical reform made output decline the least. Social developments have been perplexing but mixed. The building of democracy and the establishment of the rule of law have been far less successful. International assistance has been limited but helpful. This region has now become highly dynamic, but corruption remains problematic.

Trimming the Sails: The Comparative Political Economy of Expansionary Fisal Consolidation

Fiscal consolidation has significant short term costs which dampen economic growth. Benczes’ multidisciplinary analysis of the relatively new concept of expansionary fiscal consolidation aims to find out whether it is possible to have fiscal consolidation and experience economic growth, even in the short run. This theory is tested on a difficult case. Whether Hungary, which has had the highest deficit in the European Union, has a chance to experience short term growth in times of adjustment?

From Soviet to Putin and Back: The Dominance of Energy in Today’s Russia.”

Russia and energy sources, first oil and then both oil and gas, have been inextricably connected in a way unmatched by any other major power in the history of the world. The United States and other developed countries, such as Japan and members of the European Union, are both heavy users of energy yet devoid of adequate indigenous resources. The search and control of energy resources have been central to major world conflicts, including both World Wars and other civil wars and global conflicts. Geopolitics of oil and gas power modern life and control trans-national relationships. Countries with insufficient domestic petroleum supplies are inherently vulnerable, and politicians campaign on promises of increasing their nation’s “energy independence.” Meanwhile, political militancy by certain energy-rich nations such as Venezuela, Iran and increasingly Russia has legitimized their regimes and political leaders.
Loaded with formidable energy resources, Russia, has used its natural endowment as a pivotal tool to further political and strategic aims before, during and after the Soviet period., One of the least understood but enormously significant examples of this is the role that oil played in the post-World War II USSR. In terms of international influence, the 1960s was the golden era of the Soviet Union. Surrounded by its newly acquired satellite states the country was emerging as a counter-balancing force to the United States and other western capitalist powers, some whose global influence was entering a period of relative decline. Ideologically, the USSR painted itself as the champion of the so called non-aligned world, gaining credibility as a supporter of their anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggles. To the idealists of the world, the dream of a society without poverty and class-based domination evoked admiration for the Soviet creed. It also enhanced the emotional and intellectual appeal of a system that seemingly provided an alternative to the cruel realities of unfettered capitalism. What these romantics could not see was the problematic machinery used to run the Soviet Union and its drain on everyday lives of the people living in the communist bloc.
What also many could not see is that oil would bankroll the U.S.S.R, when copious quantities of oil were discovered exactly when the country seemed to need it most, time and time again. In the last fifteen years of Soviet rule, petroleum was often wielded as an antidote for the degeneration of the USSR. In the end, all it did was mask the real problems.
Under President Vladimir Putin, post-Soviet Russia has recovered much of its rightful position and power bestowed upon it by its energy resources, but only after a series of misadventures. What Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev could not do with nuclear weapons and raw military power, Putin is doing with oil and gas in what arguably can be called energy imperialism.

Eight essays connected by various common strands. The most important one is the community of the main subject-matter: socialism, capitalism, democracy, change of system. These four expressions cover four phenomena of great and comprehensive importance. Each piece in the book deals with these and the connections between them.

One of the Leitmotifs is the “capitalism/socialism” pair of opposites. Capitalism has a history of several hundred years, while the socialist regime existed only for a few decades. But this pair of opposites was central to the history of the twentieth century. This antagonism put its stamp on political thinking, on the foreign policy and military preparedness of every country, and on some appallingly destructive armed conflicts. All these had great secondary influence on each country’s economic development and the standard of living and disposition of its inhabitants.

None of the studies is confined to one country—not to Hungary or to any other. Each tries to embrace the problems common to greater units. However, the greater unit comprehended is not the same in each study. One may deal with the capitalist or socialist system in general, another will all the post-socialist countries, and a third the Central East European region. But all extend the analysis beyond the borders of one country.