Making Capitalism Without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe

by Gil Eyal, Iván Szelényi, Eleanor R. Townsley

Making Capitalism without Capitalists offers a new theory of the transition to capitalism. By telling the story of how capitalism is being built without capitalists in post-communist Central Europe it guides is towards a deeper understanding of the origins of modern capitalism.

Genres: Economics

287 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Greta]

I am reading this book to keep from getting too stupid.

Eleanor Townsley was my professor in college and she is brilliant.

[Adrian Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just about the economics of the system change, but applies a broader - Bourdieuian - conception of capital, sources of power within society to Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s.

The idea is that capitalist institutions were created in post communist societies by the educated middle class rather than the propertied middle class. There is an interesting comparison with the development of 'bottom up capitalism' in China

This distinction also raises the question of causality. The educated middle class in the West was created to satisfy the needs of the propertied middle class: more technology, more management provides more profit. In CEE the educated middle class was created to satisfy the needs of the state.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Academic paper pushers that need to fit the facts around the predictions of their favorite intellectual fraud.

[Thomas Cavan Gui · Rating 4 out of 5]

作者從比較資本主義的視角回擊九十年代盛極一時的“歷史終結論”。但作者對所謂混合產權下形成的“後共產管理主義”持過於樂觀的態度。不說劇變三十年後的我們覺得不妥當，本書出版時的99年，作者93年做的實證研究就顯得解釋力問題多多。