| Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism (Postmodern occasions) |  | Author: Nigel Swain
Publisher: Verso Books
Category: Book
Buy Used: $121.26
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 6253527
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.5 x 1
ISBN: 0860913570
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.9439
EAN: 9780860913573
ASIN: 0860913570
Publication Date: March 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Why did Hungarian socialism - the most innovative in the Eastern Europe - fade away so easily? 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. 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Heavy reading, but very insightful October 1, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is not for the faint of heart. It delves heavily into the world of economic theory and policy, which may seem daunting to the layman. This is not a fun read. It quotes facts, statistic and theorizes in such a manner that everything must be absorbed before continuing. Yet it is a masterpiece in analyzing the workings of the Hungarian socialist system and why it ended. It examines the key difficulties in establishing workable socialism and follows the various reforms and 5-year plans that marked Hungarian Communist history. The book does not deal with historical events directly, but rather with the economic decisions that defined the direction the country took. A must read for all serious students of Hungarian Communist and post-Communist history.
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