Artha Vijnana: Journal of The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics

Ramnath Narayanswamy

Abstract

How far is it possible to speak of an economic crisis in Eastern Europe? If the answer is in the positive, then how do societies dominated by planned economies ever come to be- in a state of crisis? Do the East European economies suffer from inflation, unemployment and recession? What is the role of corruption and to what extent does it affect productivity? Or efficiency? Is the widely acclaimed Hungarian model only an exception which merely confirms the rule? Further, is it Poland that will ultimately show the way? These are some of the many stimulating questions which this slim volume attempts to answer. The result is a brief yet original account of the nature of the crisis obtaining on the economic front both in the Soviet Union and Eastern Eurore and in this attempt remains one of the few of its kind.

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Ramnath Narayanswamy

Abstract

In this paper, an attempt has been made to situate the importance of the famous Novosibirsk paper on the conception and implementation of economic reform in the USSR and Eastern Europe. In late 1983, a confidential paper on economic reform was leaked to the Western press providing valuable insights about the nature of views and arguments obtaining within the closed doors of the Soviet administrative and academic world on various problems confronting the Soviet economy and discussions on· remedial measures contemplated in these circles to remove them (Zaslavskaya, 1983). A little while later, the Arkhiv samizdata carne forward with the full Russian text supplemented with several useful annotations (Zaslavskaya, 1984). While the title page and the author's name were missing from the original copy, the Arkhiv samizdata supplied evidence to credit authorship to Tatyana Zaslavskaya, a professor and full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from Novosibirsk, as well as head of the section dealing with social problems at the Institute of· Economics and Organisation of Industrial Production of the Siberion division of the Academy.

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Ramnath Narayanswamy

Abstract

"The self-deification of humanity to which Marxism gave philosophical expression, has ended the same way as all such attempts, whether individual or collective: it has revealed itself as the farcial aspect of human bondage".

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Ramnath Narayanswamy

Abstract

In an age where contemporary ideological conflicts concerning the alleged economic superiority of the economies of the Soviet-type over traditional capitalist systems have come to be increasingly questioned, there has arisen over the years, a growing need for a critical appreciation of the features (e.g., mode of regulation, systemic constraints of large scale centralised planning, forms of ownership, economic behaviour, etc'), that distinguish the economies of the Soviet-type from Western capitalist systems. While the essential features of the capitalist system-appear familiar and easily identifiable, the Soviet economic system has long been viewed as a bizarre spectre characterised by the “universal reign of economic irrationality" - something that seems to forever elude any form of recognisable analysis.

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