Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Reforming The Soviet Economy

Reforming The Soviet Economy

Ed A. Hewett
Reviewed by By John C. Campbell
Summer 1988
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.
Ed A. Hewett
Brookings
1988
404 pp.
$36.95

Hewett's masterly study does much more than sketch out the Gorbachev reform plans adopted in July 1987 and speculate on their chances of success. It gives a clear description of the Soviet economy since Stalin's time, both the formal economy and the system as it actually operates. He analyzes the earlier attempts at reform (those of Khrushchev, the Kosygin reforms of 1965, and the later ones in the 1970s); these efforts largely failed, but an understanding of them and why they failed helps to explain the magnitude and risks of Gorbachev's task. Among other things, Hewett argues, Gorbachev has to find a tolerable balance between improved economic performance and the widespread desire in Soviet society for equality and security, for to have both in full measure is impossible. Hewett's book invites comparison with other recent studies on the subject. In general he digs deeper, is clearer in analysis, and is cautious about predicting the future.

Related

Essay, Sep/Oct 2000
A Chilean Model for Russia
Jose Pinera

Russia does not need a Pinochet, but it does need the Chilean economic model. For Russia to grow at self-sustaining annual rates of seven to ten percent for a decade or two -- the only way it can pull itself out of poverty -- it needs much more economic liberalization. Four reforms inspired by Chile's dramatic turnaround can help Russia out of its doldrums: pension privatization, tax reform, radical deregulation of coddled industries, and the replacement of the ruble with the euro. The indispensable element is not a strong four-star general but a team of determined economic policymakers who know that freedom works.

Read
Essay, Fall 1989
Gorbachev's Nationalities Problem
Gail W. Lapidus

Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms have unleashed an unprecedented tide of protests and demonstrations across the U.S.S.R. in which national grievances occupy a central place alongside economic unrest. From Alma Ata to Abkhazia, from Tallinn to Tbilisi, virtually no region of this vast and complex multinational society appears immune to the rising tide of national self-assertion. Whether in the form of anti-Russian demonstrations, as in Kazakhstan and Georgia, or in the emergence of new sociopolitical movements demanding greater economic and political autonomy, such as the Popular Fronts of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, or in more volatile outbursts of communal violence that have resulted in a tragic loss of lives and many thousands of refugees, as in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan-all pose a growing threat to Gorbachev's leadership and to the future of his reforms.

Read
Essay, Sep/Oct 1999
Russia's Collapse
Anders Aslund

Most people think that Russia's economic problems are due to the shock of fast and radical reforms. Actually, the Russian economy is not very liberalized at all, and its problems have been caused by reforms that were too slow and partial, not too sweeping. Russia suffers not from too free a market but from corruption, which thrives by preying on an unwieldy bureaucracy. Still, the outlook for the months ahead is promising. If Poland could do it, why can't Russia? The private sector got a salutary wake-up call from the 1998 collapse of the ruble, and the strength of the political center bodes well for economic recovery and social change.

Read