Status Updates From Making Capitalism Without C...

It is ironic that after the fall of state socialism, the anti-state post-communist government bureaucracy continues to grow, often in the shape of 'privatisation' bureaucracies - cf. Bokros

"[The new bourgeoisie] are about as far as they could be from the ideal Schumpeterian entrepreneur. their main creative activity is to find loopholes, to find patrons or to mobilize clients" - harsh, but fair?

in terms of class relations, these are societies with small, weak domestic propertied bourgeoisies but large intelligentsias, which have resisted historical pressures to professionalize - Maybe their big mistake.

The historical role of cultural capital is often revolutionary, and it seems unable to institutionalize itself as the dominant logic of a stable system - So much for Plato's philosopher kings.

the fact is privatisation produced disinvestment...Some of this could probably be called 'creative destruction' ... Some of this ... however, was simply a siphoning off of resources from large firms, often into private pockets...

If the Chinese technocracy did manage to oust the bureaucracy, China might very well adopt the policy of systematic privatisation.

It is difficult not to attribute China's extraordinary economic achievement to its strategy of building capitalism from below.

But if we are to understand why [socialist managers] opted for capitalism from above, it is impossible from above, it is impossible to separate analytically or empirically their self-interest from their commitment to professional ethics.

Civil society was the theory that gradually de-socialized intellectuals from a socialist, communitarian value system and reeducated them in capitalist individualistic virtues.

"For all these reasons, we believe that the struggle between the technocratic-managerial elite of the corporate sector and the new entrepreneurs who started from scratch is far from over." - it seems to be now, but the victors were not the technocrats, but the Fideszniks.

it is difficult to see how the future Soros of Central Europe can be made quickly from the stuff which is found among the ruins of state socialism.

There are many reasons why managers who have become owners might feel more comfortable navigating a Weberian world of political capitalism rather than a world governed by the conditions of laissez-faire capitalism.

By contrast, in the regions further east - in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and especially in Russia - it is conceivable that a substantial portion of the political nomenklatura became proprietors, and may constitute an important part of the propertied classes that will develop in these countries.

...there have been reports of journalists murdered, beaten and harassed in Russia and Slovakia. - only the last in Hungary

The nationalization of property has been a process with far-reaching implications, and is possibly irreversible. - cf UK nationalization and Privatization. Compensation?

We think that the capitalism which is being made in Central Europe is being made from above. - This has probably always been the case, why?

although the government formed by the Socialist Party did not display stunning competence, they were very efficient i rewarding the 'competent' - namely their cadre base - with state property.

between 1993 and 1995, it was not managers who benefited from the reduction in public sector ownersip, but foreign investors. - and Fidesz set about trying to take these assets back.

[Managers] subtracted the most lucrative activites of the state firms they managed to [their small privately owned] companies - Fidesz has further developed this.

After a brief encounter with critical thought, Central European intellectuals have returned to a reified consciousness; after Soviet Marxist reification, they are victims of bourheois reification.

Foundations have become a source of income for those intellectuals who now sit on their Boards of Directors, and most importantly serve as the major institutional base of intellectual power over culture, science and education. - plus ca change

Dissidents rejected the abstruse metaphorical language of the technocracy, and challenged the taboos of communist discourse by trying to call things by their real names. - real?

The smart manager, then, may not want to acquire ownership in the firm he manages. Instead, he may try to negotiate a good deal for his foreign acquaintences with the Privatization Agency.