Book reviews

Jan Marczewski, Crisis in Socialist Planning. Eastern Europe and the USSR. Translated from the French by Noel Lindsay. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger Publishers and London: Pall Mall Press, 1974. xvii+245 pp. £8.00.

Alec Nove, Stalinism and After. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. 205pp. £4.74, or £2.35 (paperback).

John Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad. Volume 1 of Stalin's War with Germany. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1975. x+594 pp. £12.00.

Henry W. Morton and Rudolf L. Tökés (eds.), Soviet Politics and Society in the 1970s. New York: The Free Press and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1974. xxvi+401 pp. £6.50.

Dodd L. Harvey and Linda C. Ciccoritti, U.S.‐Soviet Cooperation in Space. Coral Gables, Fla: Center for Advanced International Studies, University of Miami, 1974. xxxiii+382 pp. Paperback.

T. Dixon Long and Christopher Wright (eds.), Science Policies of Industrial Nations: Case Studies of the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Sweden. Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government. New York: Praeger, 1975. xiii+232 pp.

Roy E. H. Mellor, Eastern Europe: A Geography of the Comecon Countries. London: Macmillan Press, 1975. x+358 pp. £7.50 or £3.95 (Paperback).

Bogdan Mieczkowski, Personal and Social Consumption in Eastern Europe: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany. Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. xxiv+342 pp. $21.50.

Gerhard Wettig, Community and Conflict in the Socialist Camp: The Soviet Union, East Germany and the German Problem 1965–1972. Translated by Edwina Moreton and Hannes Adomeit. London: C. Hurst, 1975. xiv+161 pp. £6.30.

Kurt Sontheimer and Wilhelm Bleek, The Government and Politics of East Germany. Translated by Ursula Price. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1975. 205 pp.

Allen H. Barton, Bogdan Denitch and Charles Kadushin (eds.), Opinion‐Making Elites in Yugoslavia. Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government. New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall Press, 1973. xxii+344 pp. £7.75.

Sharon Zukin, Beyond Marx and Tito. Theory and Practice in Yugoslav Socialism. London: Cambridge UP, 1975. x+302 pp. £7.50.

Ervin Pamlényi (ed.), A History of Hungary. Wellingborough: Collet's, 1975. (Published in Hungary, edited under the auspices of the Historical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.) 676 pp. £4.95.

Peter J. Potichnyj (ed.), Ukraine in the Seventies. (Papers and Proceedings of the McMaster Conference on Contemporary Ukraine, October 1974.) Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1975. 355 pp. $12.95 or $6.95 (paperback).

Leon Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1923–25). Edited and with an introduction by Naomi Allen. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1975. 428 pp. $15.00. $3.95 or £1.65 (paperback).

Frank Haller, Sozialistische Akkumulations‐ und Wachstumstheorie. Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie des Sozialismus in der DDR. Berlin: Osteuropa‐Institut an der Freien Universität Berlin, 1974. In Kommission bei Verlag Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. 192 pp. DM 62.     

Policy implications of private sector involvement in correctional services and programs

The movement toward private sector involvement in our correctional services and programs is growing. Before our focus is turned completely to privatization of these services, it would be prudent to analyze the "policy impact of such change. It is evident that the diverse and incompatible policies guiding the government approach to corrections and the absence of any rational planning to answer public interest goals is costly. Moreover, despite the increasing complexity of problems now confronting public authorities, little change has been made in their approach to resolving them. However, is it realistic to assume that the profit/loss barometer of the private sector can be applied in an area of social problems that are so pluralistic and ill defined? What of the many areas of potential legal concern, that is, vicarious litigation, First Amendment right of prisoners, and so forth? These are all areas that need to be researched so that any judgements or decisions made will be sound.     

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.