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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
I would like József Böröcz, to speak of continuity in the East European transition—a continuity that links the post-communist status quo with the communist status quo ante. The message of this note is, however, different if not contrary to Böröcz's main proposition epitomized by his illuminating concept of the ‘winking-oppressive’ variant of state socialism.
(1) Cf. Arato, Andrew, Revolution, Restoration and Legitimation, in Bryant, Christopher and Mokrzycki, Edmund (eds), The New Great Transformation (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, forthcoming).Google Scholar
(2) Cf. Kornai, Janos, Economics of Shortages (Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1980).Google Scholar
(3) This is a digest of ideas presented in my papers: Eastern Europe After Communism, Telos, XC (1991–1992)Google Scholar; The Legacy of ‘Real Socialism’ and Western Democracy, Studies in Comparative Communism, XXIV, 2 (1991)Google Scholar; The Social Limits of East European Economic Reforms, Journal of Socio-Economics, forth coming; The Legacy of ‘Real Socialism’, Group Interests and the Search for a New Utopia, in Connor, Walter and Ploszajski, Piotr (eds), Escape from Socialism: the Polish Route, (Warsaw, IFIS Publishers, 1992).Google Scholar
(4) Cf. Nowak, Stefan, Spoleczenstwo polskie czasu kryzysu, (Warsaw, ISUW, 1984).Google Scholar
(5) Dr. Leszek Balcerowicz was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of two successive ‘Solidarity’ governments. He was the main author of the Polish reform plan which he later implemented with an iron hand and so became the main object of political attacks, especially by post-communists, peasants and radical-nationalists. With the fall of the Bielecki's government in December 1991, Balcerowicz disappeared from the scene. His program, however, is still in place though few political figures acknowledge his contribution to what now seems to be a beginning of economic recovery in Poland. He might have been wrong as far as theoretical sociological assumptions of his plan are concerned and yet right as far as practical measures of his program are concerned.
