Economist and historian, founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of Industrialization (CEMI : Centre pour l'Étude des Modes d'Industrialisation) at the Sorbonne), economic advisor to the governments of several developing countries during the period of decolonization. He was very influential in France's New Left, and considered one of "the most visible Marxists in the capitalist world" (Le Monde, April 4, 1972), in France as well as in Spain, Italy, Latin America, and India.
Really interesting discussion on the economic character and function of the "transition period" but both of the authors are so hamstrung by their respective political and economic orthodoxies that they can't get to the real root of the problem without having to beat around the bush to get there. Bettelheim's rejection "plan/market" distinction as being useless to speak of in relation to trying to discuss the class character of the former Eastern Bloc makes a lot of sense when you think about the "dictatorship of the proletariat" rationally.