"The Evolution of Economic Systems" is dedicated to Ota Sik on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It honours Ota Sik's economics, his political life and his social and humane concerns. His commitment to truth, his challenging of established polit-economic structures and idealogical borderlines...

"This volume examines failed attempts at modernizing the communist economy by means of optimal planning. It traces the rise and fall of the concept in Eastern Europe and China, explaining why the mission of optimization was doomed to fail and why it may nevertheless be relaunched today."