Managerial Strategies for Spontaneous Privatization

Two Western economists examine the rapid changes in property and business forms of enterprises in the former Soviet Union using evidence from intensive interviews conducted through December 1991 and involving 80 industrial and commercial organizations. After reviewing the reforms that provided the legal basis for the process, they describe different managerial strategies employed in spontaneous privatization and examine the ensuing changes in contractual relations of firms with other entities such as ministries or banks. The authors also interpret spontaneous privatization on the basis of literature covering property rights and identify several groups that lose or derive benefits from the transformation. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, L2.     

Legal Development and Privatization in Russia: A Case Study

An American attorney and political scientist presents a study focused on managerial efforts to reorganize the corporate structure of a large aviation conglomerate with 14,000 employees. The conversion of properties from state to collective ownership and organizational shifts to a joint-stock company are detailed and analyzed. Managerial strategies to streamline the privatization are traced from corporate documents and procedures designed internally to devise orderly regulations not rooted in parliamentary legislation or presidential decrees. Broader implications are noted in light of possible trends to develop laws at the grassroots level and to establish precedents that may be assimilated. journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: K22, L21, P13, P31.     

Gorbachev's Economic Strategy: A Comment

Specialists from three countries report the results of survey research conducted during March-April 2000 in Dagestan. Questions addressed include identification with Russia and with Dagestan, confidence in local, regional, and federal institutions, perceptions of changes in the economy, politics, and cultural life, and perceived threats from external sources. Analysis also specifies attitudinal differences among ethnic groups and among other demographic categories within Dagestan.     

Public Opinion on Privatization: Republic Differences

An American Sovietologist and two Soviet social scientists summarize the results of a public opinion survey on privatization carried out by Goskomstat SSSR. The survey was conducted in the fall of 1990. The analysis of data made in 1991 included all union republics and the Baltics. Specific survey questions were designed to test urban residents' attitudes toward private ownership of business, sales of state enterprises to individuals, hiring by private business, and stock ownership in private enterprises. Included in the paper are correlations of attitudes toward specific issues suggesting a deeper, more central mindset toward privatization. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, P12.     

Reflections on Economic Sovietology: A Comment

A specialist on Russian politics and society examines the apparent success of economic and political liberalism in Novgorod oblast' in the 1990s. The article is based on published and unpublished documentary sources from the region, as well as in-depth, repeated interviews with local officials during 1997-1999. Focus is on progress in economic reform, finance, and foreign investment, forms of political decentralization and representation, the growth civic associations, and styles of political leadership. Several explanations for these outcomes are proposed and discussed.     

Computing in the USSR: A Comment

A specialist on Russian society and politics analyzes recent plans for reform of social policy in Russia. Based on documentary and interview evidence, case studies of housing and pension reform are presented. Prospects for the Putin government's social-sector reform program are considered.     

Privatization in Russia's Regions

An American specialist on Russian and post-Soviet politics examines regional variations in the privatization of both large and small industrial enterprises in Russia during 1992-1994. Using regional statistical data, both published and unpublished, interviews with actors and documentary materials from the Russian press, the author finds substantial differences among regions in the pace and strategy of privatization. He concludes that the weakness of the central government led it to make compromises that enabled local elites to retain effective control over enterprises in their regions. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: P31, L16, L20.     

Privatization in Transition Countries

Two economists at the International Monetary Fund review a selection of empirical studies on privatization experiences in transition countries. The purpose is to examine the relative performance of privatized and state owned enterprises. In so doing the importance of privatization method is stressed, as is the importance of the background market environment. The role of de novo firms in enlarging the private sector in transition economies is also reviewed, along with the question of whether privatization efforts support or hinder de novo private-sector development.     

提案型公共服务:日本民营化运作模式

创新公共服务提供方式是当前学术界和政策研究部门共同的难题。提案型公共服务是日本的一个机制创新,具有市场测试法"顶层设计"、提案运作"自下而上"、主体归一的特点,同时在实践中面临民间机构寻租、政府监管不力等问题与风险。日本经验为完善国内当下的公共服务市场化改革提供了思路和借鉴。     

比较地区化理论评析:一种方法论的视角

当下比较地区主义研究虽然已经成为一门显学,但该题域尚缺少深厚的理论支撑,主要问题集中在:第一,地区比较过程中,如何对待欧洲经验的问题尤为突出;第二,具体的比较项较为模糊,缺乏实际操作的经验性工作;第三,采用的比较方法存在缺陷。加强国内外学界相关理论成果的评析,特别是对方法论的重视是解决上述问题的主要途径。本文以赫特的新地区主义理论为例,评析了地区主义理论的现状、局限以及突破的方向。     

A Comment on Kellogg's Analysis

An American specialist on the Soviet and Russian military-industrial complex examines the economic, social and political tensions within one of the most important, closed nuclear cities in Russia. Based on an intensive examination of the city's daily newspaper, not heretofore available in the West, the author explores the implications of the current situation for prospective nuclear accidents or proliferation. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P29, R58, O18.     

Apocalypse Forever? A Comment

This paper engages with that by William Tow. By discussing the contentious aspects of the interpretive traditions used in Tow's article and further interrogating the distinction between hard power and soft power, it draws attention to the contested nature of international relations theory in general, as well as to the need for a diversity of approaches to the terrorism question in particular. It questions the continuing integrity of nation-states and the ideas of rational action and proportional response. It elaborates some of the methodological problems concerning the respective priority of interpretation or prediction. Its conclusion is less sanguine than Tow's because it indicates that the causes of violence and resentment remain unaddressed; nonetheless endorsing the need for cooperative political processes.     

Belarus', Ukraine and The Russian Question: A Comment

Before the names of Just and Unjust can have place there must be some coercive force to compel men equally to abide by their covenants by the terrour of a punishment greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their covenant… So that the nature of Justice consisteth not in keeping of valid covenants: but the Validity of Covenants begins not but with the Constitution of a Civill power sufficient to compel men to keep them.

Thomas Hobbes, 1651     

Learning the Limits of Power: Privatization and State-Labor Interactions in Mexico

Despite repeated conflict with organized labor, the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–94) pushed an aggressive divestment agenda that transformed Mexico into Latin America's leading privatizer. Explanations of Salinas's achievements typically emphasize centralized presidential power (including control over the ruling party) and autonomy; technocratic and political savvy; and weak labor opposition. This article questions such a pure "capacity-outcome" approach. Of equal importance are the learning effects of repeated interaction between the state and labor, which changed the course of divestment struggles and thereby influenced their outcomes. Lessons learned in successive confrontations led to patterns of interaction conducive to widescale privatization. The article develops this argument through comparative analysis of major divestment episodes in the aviation, mining, steel, and telecommunications sectors.     

农地私有化、市场环境与俄罗斯农业发展

1991年俄罗斯私有化改革之后,农业进入了负增长期。其深层次原因是市场环境不利于农业发展,非均衡的通货膨胀使农产品价格相对偏低,农业生产成本上升,收益却不断下降。在这种情况下,理性的农业生产主体只能选择减少生产,俄罗斯不得不依靠进口农产品来满足国内消费需求。1998年金融危机改变了农业发展的市场环境,卢布汇率的大幅度贬值抑制了进口农产品对俄罗斯农业的冲击,国内市场环境也开始向有利于农业发展的方向转变,俄罗斯农业从此走上了复苏之路。基于这种分析,2008年金融危机能够继续改变农业贸易条件和卢布汇率,因而这次金融危机仍然有利于俄罗斯农业的发展。