NEW BOOK: "How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia"
by Anders Aslund, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, and a Senior Advisor to the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC).
Setember 11, 2007
Cambridge University Press has just published a new book by Anders Aslund entitled "How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia."
Anders is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and has served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) for many years. The USUBC congratulates Anders on the publication of his important new book.
"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.
FRONTMATTER FROM THE BOOK: Anders Aslund is known for making bold predictions that initially arouse controversy but become common wisdom a few years later. He foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union in his book Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform (1989).
He depicted the success of Russia's market transformation in How Russia Became a Market Economy (1995), when others saw little but chaos.
After Russia's financial crisis of 1998, Aslund insisted that Russia had no choice but to adjust to the world market (Building Capitalism, 2002), although most observers declared the market economic experiment a failure.
[1] Why did Russia not choose Chinese gradual reforms?
[2] Why are the former Soviet countries growing much faster than
the Central European economies?
[3] How did the oligarchs arise?
[4] Where are the postcommunist countries heading?
These are just some of the questions answered in his new book, How Capitalism Was Built, which tells the story of how all but three of twenty-one former communist countries were transformed into market economies from 1989 to 2007, but less than half of them became democracies.
Anybody who wants to understand the often confusing dramas unfolding in the region and to obtain an early insight into the future will find this book useful and intellectually stimulating.
Anders Aslund is a leading specialist on postcommunist economic transformation with more than 30 years of experience in the field.
The author of seven books, he has also worked as an economic advisor to the Russian government, to the Ukrainian government, and to the president of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Dr. Aslund joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., in January 2006. Before that he was the Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He teaches at Georgetown University.
He was born in Sweden and served as a Swedish diplomat. He earned his PhD from Oxford University.
CONTENTS:
Introduction: a world transformed; 1. Communism and its demise; 2. Shock therapy vs. gradualism; 3. Output: slump and recovery; 4. Liberalization: the creation of a market economy; 5. From hyperinflation to financial stability; 6. Privatization: the establishment of private property rights; 7. An inefficient social system; 8. Democracy vs. authoritarianism; 9. From crime toward law; 10. The role of oligarchs; 11. The role of international assistance; 12. Conclusions: a world transformed.
NEW BOOK: HOW CAPITALISM WAS BUILT
The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia By Anders Aslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Paperback: (ISBN-13: 9780521683821), 384 pages Also available in Hardback Published August 2007, In stock; $25.99 (Z)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND HOW TO ORDER:
LINK: www.cambridge.org/us/9780521683821