Abstract
This article critiques the dominant neoliberal transition paradigm. The implementation of neoliberal reforms in the postcommunist world has fostered the creation of two different types of capitalism. Rather than enabling a transition to Western European-style capitalism, these reforms have produced divergence within the postcommunist world. This article uses comparative firm-level case studies from Russia and Poland to construct a “neoclassical” sociological alternative to neoliberal theory that can explain this divergence. In this account, intra-dominant class structure (the pattern of alliances between the Party bureaucracy, the technocracy, and humanistic intellectuals) at the time of the transition produces different “paths to capitalism,” or policy regimes, which, in turn, have different effects on the ability of firms to restructure. In Russia, this creates a system of “patrimonial capitalism” that will produce long-term economic stagnation. In Poland, a variety of modern rational capitalism emerges. This latter system is distinguished by its very high levels of dependence on capital imports in comparison to the advanced capitalist countries. As a result, this type of economy will be quite vulnerable to economic shocks.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aslund, Anders. 1991. “Principles of Privatization.” Pp. 17–31 inSystemic Change and Stabilization in Eastern Europe, ed. Laszlo Csaba. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
—. 1995.How Russia Became a Market Economy. Washington The Brookings Institution.
Aslund, Anders, P. Boone, and S. Johnson. 1996. “How to Stabilize: Lessons from Postcommunist Countries.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 81, 1: 217–234.
Balcerowicz, Leszek, Barbara Blaszczyk, and Marek Dabrowski. 1997. “The Polish Way to the Market Economy 1989–1995.” Pp. 131–160 inEconomies in Transition: Comparing Asia and Europe, eds. Wing Thye Woo, Steven Parker, and Jeffrey D. Sachs. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Baltowski, Maciej and Tomasz Mickanwicz. 2000. “Privatization in Poland: Ten Years After.”Post-Communist Economies 12, 4: 425–443.
Bernhard, Michael H. 1993.The Origins of Democratization in Poland: Workers, Intellectuals, and Oppositional Politics, 1976–1980. New York: Columbia University Press.
Blanchard, Olivier, Rudiger Dornbusch, Paul Krugman, Richard Layard, and Lawrence Summers. 1991.Reform in Eastern Europe. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Brenner, Robert. 1976. “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-industrial England.”Past and Present 70: 30–75.
Brubaker, Rogers. 1984.The Limits of Rationality: An Essay on the Social and Moral Thought of Max Weber. London, Boston: Allen & Unwin.
Burawoy, Michael. 1996. “The State and Economic Involution: Russia through a China Lens.”World Development 24, 6: 1105–1122.
Burawoy, Michael and Pavel Krotov. 1992. “The Soviet Transition From Socialism to Capitalism: Worker Control and Economic Bargaining.”American Sociological Review 57: 16–38.
Burawoy, Michael and Janos Lukacs 1992.The Radiant Past. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Burawoy, Michael and Katherine Verdery. 1999.Uncertain Transitions: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World. Boston: Roman and Littlefield.
Carlin, Wendy, John Van Reenen, and Toby Wolfe. 1994.Enterprise Restructuring in the Transition: An Analytical Survey of the Case Study Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe. Working Paper No. 14. London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Collins, Randal. 1980. “Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism.”American Sociological Review 45, 6: 925–942.
De Melo, Martha and Alan Gelb. 1996. “A Comparative Analysis of Transition Economies in Europe and Asia.”Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 37, 5: 265–285.
De Melo, Martha, Cevdet Denizer, Alan Gelb, and Stoyan Tenev. 2001. “Circumstances and Choice: The Role of Initial Conditions and Policies in Transition Economies.”The World Bank Economic Review 15, 1: 1–31.
Domhoff, G. William. 1978.Who Really Rules? New Haven and Community Power Re-Examined. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
—. 1990.The Power Elite and the State. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Ericson, Richard E. 1991. “The Classical Soviet-Type Economy: Nature of the System and Implications for Reform.”Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, 4 (Fall): 11–27.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 1996, 1999, 2001.Transition Report. London: EBRD.
—. 2000.Transition Report Update. London: EBRD.
Eyal, Gil. 2000. “Anti-politics and the Spirit of Capitalism: Dissidents, Monetarists, and the Czech Transition to Capitalism.”Theory and Society 29: 49–92.
Eyal, Gil, Ivan Szelenyi, and Eleanor Townsley. 1998.Making Capitalism Without Capitalists. New York: Verso.
——. 2001. “Neoclassical Sociology: From the End of Communism to the End of Classes.”American Journal of Sociology 106, 4: 1099–1120.
Filer, Randall and Jan Hanousek. 2001. “Data Watch: Research Data from Transition Economies.” William Davidson Working Paper 416.
Fischer, Stanley and Alan Gelb. 1991. “The Process of Socialist Economic Transformation.”Journal of Economic Perspectives 4: 91–106.
Fischer, Stanley, Ratna Sahay, and Carlos A. Vegh. 1996. “Stabilization and Growth in Transition Economies: The Early Experience.”Journal of Economic Perspectives 10, 2 (Spring): 45–66.
Frydman, Roman and Andrzej Rapaczynski. 1994.Privatization in Eastern Europe: Is the State Withering Away? Budapest: Central European University Press.
Frydman, R., C. Gray, and A. Rapaczynski. 1996.Corporate Governance in Central Europe and Russia. Budapest: CEU Press.
Frydman, Roman, Andrzej Rapaczynski, and Joel Turkowitz. 1997. “Transition to a Private Property Regime in the Czech Republic and Hungary.” Pp. 41–102 inEconomies in Transition, eds. Wing Thye Woo, Steven Parker, and Jeffrey D. Sachs.
Frye, Timothy and Andrei Shleifer. 1997. “The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand”American Economic Association (Papers and Proceedings) 87, 2: 354–358.
Garcelon, Marc. 1997. “The Estate of Change: The Specialist Rebellion and the Democratic Movement in Moscow, 1989–1991.”Theory and Society 26: 39–85.
Greskovits, Bela. 1998.The Political Economy of Protest and Patience. Budapest: CEU Press.
Hacker-Cordon, Casiano. 2001. “Global Injustice and Human Malfare.” Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.
Hanley, Eric, Natasha Yershova, and Richard Anderson. 1995. “Russia—Old Wine in a New Bottle? The Circulation and Reproduction of Russian Elites, 1983–1993.”Theory and Society 24: 639–668.
Haraszti, Miklos. 1977.Workers in a Workers' State. London: Penguin.
Helf, Gavin and Jeffrey Hahn. 1992. “Old Dogs and New Tricks: Party Elites in the Russian Regional Elections of 1990.”Slavic Review 51, 3: 511–530.
Johnson, Simon, Daniel Kaufmann, and Andrei Schleifer. 1997. “The Unofficial Economy in Transition.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (forthcoming).
Kennedy, Michael D. 1987. “Polish Engineers' Participation in the Solidarity Movement.”Social Forces 65, 3: 641–669.
— 1992. “The Intelligentsia in the Constitution of Civil Societies in Post-Communist Regimes in Hungary and Poland.”Theory and Society 21: 29–76.
King, Lawrence P. 2001a. “Making Markets: A Comparative Study of Postcommunist Managerial Strategies in Central Europe.”Theory and Society 30, 4 (Aug): 494–538.
— 2001b.The Basic Features of Postcommunist Capitalism: Firms in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Westport, CT: Praeger Press.
King, Lawrence P. 2001c. “Shock Privatization: Neoliberal Policy and Postocommunist Economic Performance.” Paper presented at the Department of Sociology, Cornell University, February 23.
King, Lawrence P. and Ivan Szelenyi. 2001. “The New Capitalism of Eastern Europe: Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Postcommunist Capitalisms.” Paper presented at the conference, “Economic Sociology of Capitalism,” Cornell University, September 28–29.
Klebnikov, Paul. 2000.Godfather of the Kremlin. New York: Harcourt.
Konrad, George and Ivan Szelenyi. 1979.Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power. New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic.
Korbonski, Andrzej. 1999. “East Central Europe on the Eve of the Changeover: The Case of Poland.”Communist and Post-Communist Studies 32: 139.
Kornai, Janos. 1993. “Transformational Recession: A General Phenomenon Examined Through the Example of Hungary's Development. Discussion Paper No. 1, Collegium Budapest/Institute of Advanced Study.
Kosolowski, Rey. 1992. “Market Institutions, East European Reform, and Economic Theory.”Journal of Economic Issues 26: 673–705.
Kramer, Mark. 1995. “Polish Workers and the Postcommunist Transition.”Europe-Asia Studies. 37, 4.
Levitsky, Steven and Lucan Way. 1998. “Between a Shock and a Hard Place: The Dynamics of Labor Backed Adjustment in Poland and Argentina.”Comparative Politics 30: 2.
Linz, Juan and Alfred Stepan. 1996.Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lipton, David and Jeffrey Sachs. 1990a. “Creating a Market Economy in Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1: 75–133.
—. 1990b. “Privatization in Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2: 293–333.
Mann, Michael. 1986.The Sources of Social Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Medvedev Roy. 2000.Post-Soviet Russia. New York: Columbia University Press.
Moore, Barrington. 1966.The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.
Murrell, Peter. 1993. “What is Shock Therapy? What Did it Do in Poland and Russia?”Post-Soviet Affairs 9, 2: 1111–1140.
—. 1996. “How Far Has the Transition Progressed?”Journal of Economic Perspectives 10, 2: 25–44.
Naughton, Barry. 1995.Growing out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978–1993 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ost, David. 1990.The Politics of Anti-Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Popov, Vladimir. 2000. “Shock Therapy Versus Gradualism: The End of the Debate (Explaining the Magnitude of Transformational Recession).”Comparative Economic Studies XLII, 1: 1–57.
—. 1996.Poland's Protracted Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reddaway, Peter and Dmitri Glinski. 2001.The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press.
Sachs, Jeffrey. 1991a. “The Economic Transformation of Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland” (The Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy acceptance paper). Memphis, TN: P. K. Seidman Foundation.
Sachs, Jeffrey. 1991b. “Accelerating Privatization in Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland.” World Bank Annual, Conference on development Economics, 25–26 April.
—. 1994.Understanding Shock Therapy. London: Social Market Foundation.
—. 1996.Reforms in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Light of the East Asian Experiences. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
—. 1997. “The Transition at Mid Decade.”American Economic Review 86, 2: 128–133.
Sachs, Jeffrey and David Lipton. 1992. “Prospects for Russia's Economic Reforms.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2: 213–284.
Sachs, Jeffrey and Andrew Warner. 1996. “Achieving Rapid Growth in the Transition Economies of Central Europe.” Stockholm Institute of East European Economics, Working Paper 116 (November).
Schlucter, W. 1989.Rationalism, Religion, and Domination. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press.
Selowski, Marcelo and Richard Martin. 1997. “Policy Performance and Output Growth in Transition Economies.”American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) 87, 2 (May): 349–53.
Shlapentokh, Vladamir. 1990.Soviet Intellectuals and Poltical Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Smith, Adam. 1976.An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Staniskzkis, Jadwiga. 2001. “Post-communism: The Emerging Enigma (The Polish Case as a Warning).” Paper presented at Yale University, Fall.
Stark, David. 1992. “Path Dependence and Privatization Strategies in East Central Europe.”East European Politics and Society 6, 1: 15–51.
—. 1996. “Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism.”American Journal of Sociology 101, 4: 993–1027.
Stark, David and Laszlo Bruszt. 1998.Postsocialist Pathways: Transforming Politics and Property in East Central Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Szelenyi, Ivan. 1978. “Social Inequalities under State Redistributive Economies.”International Journal of Comparative Sociology 1, 61: 87.
—. 1982. “The Intelligentsia in the Class Structure of State-Socialist Societies.”American Journal of Sociology 88 (Supplement): 287–326.
Szelenyi, Ivan and Szonja Szelenyi. 1995. “Circulation or Reproduction of Elites during the Postcommunist Transformation of Eastern Europe.”Theory and Society 24: 615–638.
Szelenyi, Ivan and Balasz Szelenyi. 1995. “Why Socialism Failed.”Theory and Society 23: 211–31.
United Nations Development Program. 1999.Human Development Report for Europe and the CIS. New York: UNDP.
Vorobyov, Alexander and Stanislav Zhukov. 2000. “Russia: Globalization, Structural Shifts and Inequality.”CEPA Working Paper Series I No. 19: 2–35.
Wasilewski, Jacek and Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski. 1995. “Poland: Winding Road from the Communist to the Post-Solidarity Elite.”Theory and Society 24: 669–696.
Weber, Max. 1978.Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
—. 1988.Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations. London: Verso.
Wedel, Janine. 2001.Collision and Collusion. New York: Palgrave.
Additional information
Lawrence King is an assistant professor of sociology at Yale University. His book includeThe Basic Features of Postcommunist Capitalism in Eastern Europe (2001) andAssessing New Class Theory (with Ivan Szelenyi, forthcoming). He is currently working on a book entitledPostcommunist Capitalisms.
I am grateful for a Yale Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, and the support of the Yale Center for Comparative Research, the Social Science Research Fund at Yale, and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. I would also like to thank Aleksandra Sznajder and Evgenia Gvozdeva for their invaluable research assistance, and Ivan Szelenyi, Andrew Schrank, Hannah Brueckner, Alison Pollet, and the editors and anonymous reviewers atStudies in Comparative International Development for their comments and suggestions.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
King, L. Postcommunist divergence: A comparative analysis of the transition to capitalism in Poland and Russia. St Comp Int Dev 37, 3–34 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686229
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686229