Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism (Postmodern occasions) - Softcover

Swain, Nigel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860915697 ISBN 13: 9780860915690

Publisher: Verso Books, 1992

Synopsis

Why were Hungarians, including those who would be considered radical in the West, happy to see the introduction of a market economy? Why was there no real opposition to the dismantling of socialist achievements like universal free education and health care? Nigel Swain's topical book answers these questions through one of the most thorough analyses to date of a socialist economy in practice and dissolution.<br /><br />Carefully tracing Hungary's postwar economic history, Swain shows why both Stalinist central planning and 'feasible' market socialism failed. He argues that these failures were caused not by imperfections in the Hungarian model, but by crucial problems inherent in the socialist project itself. Far from a eulogy to free-market capitalism, yet offering a sobering account of the consequences of socialist economic errors - technological backwardness, corruption and declining morale - Hungary will be a major contribution to political and economic debate on the left.

About this title

About the Author

Nigel Swain is Deputy Director of the Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies at the University of Liverpool. His previous publications include Collective Farms Which Work? And (with P.G. Hareand H.K. Radice) Hungary: A Decade of Economic Reform.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0860915697
• ISBN 13: 9780860915690
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272