Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper begins from the proposition that 'deep restructuring' requires both finance and managerial expertise. It addresses the question of how this second stage of enterprise restructuring will come about in the majority of state‐owned or former state‐owned firms that are not owned by foreigners. In particular, it seeks to identify how the initial post‐privatization ownership and control structure impinges on the likelihood that deep restructuring takes place. Conclusions for the design of privatization policy are drawn. The initial post‐privatization ownership structures in the Visegrad countries and Russia are surveyed along with evidence of the transfer of ownership from insiders to outsiders.

Many scholars have asked themselves if and for how long they should use the concept of "post-socialism." We review some ways in which post-socialism is no longer used productively and suggest that one way to analyze the enduring effects of socialism (a useful role for the concept of post-socialism) is by paying attention to how economic and political elites in Central and Eastern Europe continue to use the ghost of state-socialism as the ultimate boogeyman, disciplinary device, and "ideological antioxidant." We call this blend of post-1989 anti-communism and neoliberal hegemony "zombie socialism," and we argue that it is a key component of contemporary capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe. We illustrate briefly some cases of zombie socialism, using data such as EU 28 statistics on labor, wages, work–life (im)balance, income tax, housing, and housing policies to show the effects of this hegemonic discourse. The presence of zombie socialism for almost three decades in Central and Eastern Europe made some of these countries "more" capitalist than countries with longer capitalist traditions in Europe. We join others who have suggested that there is nothing to transition any longer, as the "transition" is long over.