The dispute between the proponents of the market-economy road to development for the countries of the Third World and the advocates of the socialist road is an old one. Too often have the arguments been based on ideology rather than on facts. The recent publication by the World, Bank of...

The debate on international competitiveness in recent years has increasingly focused on the structure of society. International competitiveness is seen not merely as a sign of a country’s productive capacity, but also as reflecting the efficiency of its social and political structures. The...

Is there a contradiction between international competitiveness and the central principles of the welfare state? The following article examines both the negative and the positive ways in which welfare statism can affect a country’s ability to compete on international markets.

The past two decades have witnessed considerable shifts in the world income and technology pyramid. A major factor in this was the differing ability of economic systems to bring forth innovations under the pressure of a highly dynamic environment. This article analyses the link between...

The private sector in the fields of agriculture, wholesaling and retailing, craft trades and light industry, already well-developed in the People’s Republic of China and a number of Eastern European countries, is now to be given a more significant role in the Soviet Union. Moscow’s economic...

Currently there is much discussion as to whether the chapter of West Germany’s post-war history popularly known as the “Economic Miracle” can be repeated in the region of the former GDR. Professor Lang presents a series of factors which encouraged the West German economic miracle at that...

Long before the socialist industrialized nations began to call their centrally planned, or government controlled, economies into question, policymakers in many developing countries with dirigistic, interventionist systems, including capitalist oriented ones, had started to rethink their economic...

The failure of Marxist-Leninist socialism, which has become clearly apparent during the past year, has done undeniable harm to the worldwide appeal of “socialism”. Even concepts of socialism which had always expressly set themselves apart from “real-world socialism” in the Stalinist...

An economy with a stable medium-term growth rate of zero - or any other politically determined growth rate - needs new regulations and institutions to realise this target. Such an economy would look very different compared with the existing type of capitalism we have today in the Global North....

Comparative judgements related to economic systems (along with pending political ideologies) represent a subject of investigation that, at first glance, appertains to the "ABC" of social sciences, although the "literacy" of policy-makers, business officials, or public opinion reveals surprising...