Calculation and coordination essays on socialism and transitional political economy PDF
Preview Calculation and coordination essays on socialism and transitional political economy
Calculation and Coordination Calculation and Coordination explores the founding and failure of socialism, and the attempts to reform and transform it in the twentieth century. It combines the strengths of the Austrian market-process tradition with the political economy of public choice to provide an analytical framework for theoretical and historical examination of socialist practice and post-socialist political economy. Peter J.Boettke places particular emphasis on the difficulties of economic calculation in the absence of secure private-property rights and on the importance of establishing a credible commitment to limited government in smoothing the path from Soviet socialism to a liberal political and economic order in Post-Soviet Russia. The volume features essays on: • The theoretical debate over socialism, and in particular the contributions of Mises and Hayek. (cid:127) The origins of socialism in Russia. (cid:127) The institutionalist maturation of socialist practice and the de facto organizing principles of the mature Soviet-type economy. (cid:127) The collapse of and failure to successfully reform the Soviet system. This collection will prove to be of great interest to academics and students in the fields of economics, comparative politics, and development studies. Peter J.Boettke is Associate Professor at George Mason University, where he also serves as the Deputy Director of the James M.Buchanan Center for Political Economy. Foundations of the Market Economy Edited by Mario J.Rizzo, New York University, and Lawrence H.White, University of Georgia A central theme in this series is the importance of understanding and assessing the market economy from a perspective broader than the static economics of perfect competition and Pareto optimality. Such a perspective sees markets as causal processes generated by the preferences, expectations and beliefs of economic agents. The creative acts of entrepreneurship that uncover new information about references, prices and technology are central to these processes with respect to their ability to promote the discovery and use of knowledge in society. The market economy consists of a set of institutions that facilitate voluntary cooperation and exchange among indiviudals. These institutions include the legal and ethical framework as well as more narrowly ‘economic’ patterns of social interaction. Thus, the law, legal institutions and cultural and ethical norms, as well as ordinary business practices and phenomena, fall within the analytical domain of the economist. The Meaning of Market Process Essays in the development of modern Austrian economics Israel M.Kirzner Prices and Knowledge A market-process perspective Esteban F.Thomas Keynes’ General Theory of Interest A reconsideration Fiona C.Maclachlan Laissez-Faire Banking Kevin Dowd Expectations and the Meaning of Institutions Essays in economics by Ludwig Lachmann Edited by Dan Lavoie Perfect Competition and the Transformation of Economics Frank M.Machovec Entrepreneurship and the Market Process An enquiry into the growth of knowledge David Harper Economics of Time and Ignorance Gerald O’Driscoll and Mario J.Rizzo Dynamics of the Mixed Economy Towards a theory of interventionism Sanford Ikeda Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory The founding of Austrian vision A.M.Endres The Cultural Foundations of Economic Development Urban female entrepreneurship in Ghana Emily Chamlee-Wright Risk and Business Cycles New and old Austrian perspectives Tyler Cowen Capital in Disequilibrium The role of capital in a changing world Peter Lewin The Driving Force of the Market Essays in Austrian economics Israel Kirzner An Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm Fréderic Sautet Time and Money The macroeconomics of capital structure Roger Garrison Microfoundations and Macroeconomics An Austrian perspective Steven Horwitz Money and the Market Essays on free banking Kevin Dowd Calculation and Coordination Essays on socialism and transitional political economy Peter Boettke Keynes and Hayek The money economy Gerry Steele Calculation and Coordination Essays on socialism and transitional political economy Peter J.Boettke London and New York First published 2001 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 2001 Peter J.Boettke All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Boettke, Peter J. Calculation and Coordination: essays on socialism and transitional political economy/Peter J.Boettke. p. cm.—(Foundations of the market economy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-23813-7 (hardcover) 1. Marxian economics. 2. Austrian school of economics. 3. Social choice. 4. Soviet Union—Economic policy. I. Title. II. Foundations of the market economy series. HB97.5.B548 2001 338.947–dc21 00–042218 This book has been sponsored in part by the Austrian Economics program at New York University ISBN 0-203-46968-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-77792-1 (Adobe eReader Format) To Israel M.Kirzner, teacher, scholar, and mentor Contents List of illustrations xi Copyright acknowledgments xiii Acknowledgments xv 1 Introduction 1 2 Why are there no Austrian Socialists? Ideology, science, and the Austrian school 7 3 Economic calculation: the Austrian contribution to political economy 29 4 Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom revisited: government failure in the argument against Socialism 47 5 Coase, Communism, and the “Black Box” of Soviet-type economies 66 6 The Soviet experiment with pure Communism 77 7 The political economy of utopia: Communism in Soviet Russia, 1918–21 105 8 Soviet venality: a rent-seeking model of the Communist state 140 9 Credibility, commitment, and Soviet economic reform 154 10 Perestroika and public choice: the economics of autocratic succession in a rent-seeking society 176 ix
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