The Economics and Politics of Socialism

The volume focuses on the socio-political aspects of economic transformations in the Eastern European Socialist countries. Particular emphasis is laid on the problem of interrelations between the plan and the market and between economic incentives and social consumption. The volume also examines economic and political factors in the wider political context, particularly looking at the question of democratization within industry and politics. Chapter 1 1This paper was published in German under the title Die Entwicklung des sozialistischen Wirtschaftssystems in Polen. Bemerkungen zu einigen allgemeinen Problemen (Hamburger Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftspolitik, 1965). It contains large excerpts from a paper, ‘Problems of decentralization in a socialist planned economy’, presented by the author at the Sixth World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Geneva, 1964.; Chapter 2 Economic incentives, technical progress and the evolution of the socialist economic system; Chapter 3 Economic reforms and their socio-political aspect; Chapter 4 Commodity fetishism and socialism; Chapter 5 Economic calculus and political decisions; Chapter 6 Political economy and the relationship between economy and politics under socialism; Chapter 7 Contradictions and ways to resolve them;