Private Enterprise in Eastern Europe: The Non-Agricultural Private Sector in Poland and the GDR, 1945-83

The private sector in East European economies has been progressively reduced by successive "socialist offensives" but, contrary to the doctrine and original intent of the rulers, has not disappeared and plays a necessary role in balancing the market. Aslund, a Swedish economist now in the diplomatic service, by strictly limiting his enquiry to two countries, by excluding agriculture and the underground economy, and by using both statistics and interviews, is able to describe in detail the changing interaction of official theory, actual policy and the cyclical working of economic forces. An original and valuable study.