The Politics of Greed How Privatization Structured Politics in Central and Eastern Europe

by Schwartz, Andrew Harrison; Zysman, John; Ellerman, David

• ISBN13: 9780742553071
• ISBN10: 0742553078
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-12
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

An in-depth political history of privatization in Central and Eastern Europe, The Politics of Greed demonstrates that the way that assets are privatized matters, both with respect to national economic performance and the successful development of the rule of law. Andrew Harrison Schwartz had unprecedented access to high-level Czech government officials during the Czech Republic's privatization process. This book is the result of the unique insights he gained and the innovative analytical framework he subsequently developed, ownership regime theory, which for the first time places ownership structures at the center of analysis of political transitions. Engaging and important, this book applies ownership regime theory to a broad range of post-communist privatization cases, including those of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
Notes and Abbreviation	ix
Prologue	xi
John Zysman
Foreword	xiii
David Ellerman
Acknowledgments	xxi
Introduction Politics and Privatization	1	(22)
Part I Markets, Democracy, and Privatization—The Theoretical Argument
1 Neoliberal Privatization—The Dream That if You Create Private Owners, Democracy and the Market Economy Will Follow	23	(22)
Part II Institutionalism and Beyond—Introducing Ownership Regime Theory
2 Institutional Policy Design, Politics, and the Creation of Capitalism	45	(14)
3 Ownership Regimes—The Basic Model of How They Form	59	(16)
4 The Two Trajectories of Ownership Regime Evolution	75	(10)
Part III Czech Privatization as the Illustrative Case of the Ownership Model of Political Economy
5 Elite Approval—November 1989 to May 1990	85	(44)
6 Legitimating the Giveaway—June 1990 to February 1991	129	(28)
7 Creating Plutocracy—February 1991 to May 1992	157	(28)
8 Implementing the Ownership Regime—February 1991 to December 1995	185	(44)
9 The Abuses of Plutocracy, the Failure of Czech Neoliberalism—January 1996 to December 1997	229	(40)
10 Political and Economic Implications of Czech Rapid Privatization	269	(20)
Andrew Harrison Schwartz and Jiri Havel
Part IV Conclusions—Ownership Regime Theory in Comparative Perspective
11 Plutocracy Escaped, Plutocracy Avoided, Plutocracy Embedded	289	(34)
Andrew Harrison Schwartz and Jordan Gans-Morse
References	323	(18)
Index	341	(16)
About the Authors	357