The author discusses the traditional system of management of the economy as it existed in the early 1950s in the USSR and goes on to deal with the reforms of the 1960s and of the 1980s, country by country. He shows that the focus of the reforms is on finding a proper combination of planning and the market mechanism, and their success will be judged
Dr. Hubert Gabrisch, born 1950 in Hanover, FRG. 1979-1984 scientific referee at the HWWA Institute for Economic Research, Hamburg. Since 1985 researcher on the staff of The Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies (WIIW). Special fields: economic problems of the countries of East Europe, especially of Poland.
Preface -- Introduction -- Basic Thinking About Reform -- Can Socialist Economic Systems be Reformed? -- On Crucial Reform of Real Socialism -- Country Studies -- Gorbachev’s Reform Course Confirmed -- Economic Reforms in Bulgaria -- Economic Reforms in Czechoslovakia -- More Austerity and More Reform Announced in Hungary -- The Polish Reform: A Tentative Evaluation -- The “Second Stage of the Economic Reform” in Poland -- Special Areas of Reform -- Changes in the Banking System in the CMEA Area -- Foreign Trade System and Joint Ventures in the CMEA Region