Postsocialist Pathways: Transforming Politics and Property in East Central Europe (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) [Paperback]

David Stark (Author), Laszlo Bruszt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0521589746 | ISBN-13: 978-0521589741

Is there a distinctly East European capitalism? This volume analyzes democratization and economic change in the postsocialist societies of East Central Europe. It demonstrates that the collapse of communism was not the same across the region and that the differences in how the pieces fell shaped the building blocks used for reconstructing political systems and restructuring economies in the region. Among the key concepts are the importance of social networks in the economies and of deliberative institutions in the polity that include the interests of subordinate groups in policymaking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a huge breath of fresh air. Stark and Bruszt defy many conventional understandings about the transition processes and their societal consequences in Central Europe, undertake careful and innovative research, and come up with solid conclusions about the unique shape that these countries are acquiring. This, in turn, provides the basis for truly comparative work, one that benefits students of this and other regions: gaining detailed knowledge of the specificities of each set of cases and deriving from them rich theoretical implications. This is an important and original book, of great value for anyone interested in the present and future trends of newly democratized countries." Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame

"Originality, intellectual innovation, inspiration derived from sharp observation, and courageous theoretical generalizations--these are rare qualities in transition economics, and characteristic of Stark and Bruszt's book. Some of their propositions are certainly controversial, but that also helps to make Postsocialist Pathways exciting and thought-provoking reading." Janos Kornai, Harvard University and Collegium Budapest

"Stark and Bruszt have opened the 'black box' on privatization in EasternEurope -- and they have discovered circuitry that differs radically from one country to another. Moreover, these emerging patterns of public/privateownership, control and collusion have serious implications for such things as economic growth, international competitiveness, Euro-compatibility, the role of foreign capital, the legitimacy of capitalism itself -- even the type and quality of democracy." Philippe C. Schmitter, European University Institute

"Postsocialist Pathways is suitable for research collections covering economic reforms in Central Europe." Choice

Book Description

Is there a distinctly East European capitalism? This volume analyzes democratization and economic change in the postsocialist societies of East Central Europe. It demonstrates that the collapse of communism was not the same across the region and that the differences in how the pieces fell shaped the building blocks used for reconstructing political systems and restructuring economies in the region. Among the key concepts are the importance of social networks in the economies and of deliberative institutions in the polity that include the interests of subordinate groups in policy-making.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521589746
• ISBN-13: 978-0521589741
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,152,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Stark (www.thesenseofdissonance.com) is Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Columbia University where he is Chair of the Department of Sociology and also directs the Center on Organizational Innovation. His most recent book, The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life, was published by Princeton University Press in 2009. Stark studies how organizations and their members search for what is valuable. Dissonance - disagreement about the principles of worth - can lead to discovery. To study the organizational basis for innovation, he has carried out ethnographic field research in Hungarian factories before and after 1989, in new media start-ups in Manhattan before and after the dot.com crash, and in a World Financial Center trading room before and after the attack on September 11th.

Stark is also conducting historical network analysis. What is a social group across time in network terms? Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Stark and his former student, Balazs Vedres, are analyzing a large, longitudinal dataset on the ownership ties, personnel ties, and political ties of the largest 2,200 Hungarian enterprises from 1987-2006. Papers from this project include: Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups, American Journal of Sociology, 2010, vol 15, no 4; Social Times of Network Spaces: Network Sequences and Foreign Investment in Hungary, American Journal of Sociology, 2006; and Political Holes in the Economy: Blockage and Brokerage in Hungary.

With another former student, Daniel Beunza, Stark has been working on the social studies of finance. Their recent papers include: Reflexive Modeling and Systemic Risk: From Individual Bias to Social Interdependence (under review); How to Recognize Opportunities: Heterarchical Search in a Trading Room, in The Sociology of Financial Markets (Oxford University Press, 2005); and Tools of the Trade: The Socio-Technology of Arbitrage in a Wall Street Trading Room, Industrial and Corporate Change 2004.

Other research addresses innovations in the public sphere including, for example, PowerPoint in Public: Digital Technologies and the New Morphology of Demonstration, (with Verena Paravel) Theory, Culture & Society 2008; Sociotechnologies of Assembly (with Monique Girard) in Governance and Information: The Rewiring of Governing and Deliberation in the 21st Century, 2007; and Rooted Transnational Publics: Integrating Foreign Ties and Civic Activism (with Balazs Vedres and Laszlo Bruszt) Theory and Society 2006.

Stark was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2002. He has been a visiting fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris; the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne; the Institute of Advanced Study in Durham, UK; the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City; the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand; the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto; the Institute for Advanced Study/Collegium Budapest; the Center for the Social Sciences in Berlin; and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.