Property and politics in and after socialism

• Main Author: Katherine Verdery
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romanian Academy 2008-01-01
• Series: Revista Română de Sociologie
• Subjects: socialism; property; privatization
• Online Access: http://www.revistadesociologie.ro/pdf-uri/nr1-2-2008/02-VERDERY.pdf

This essay synthesizes work on the property regime of Soviet-type societies, using examples from Romania. Its aim is to correct the assumption common among western economists and policy-makers that there was no property in socialist societies (see, e.g., Frydman and Rapaczynski) and therefore no obstacles to privatization. On the contrary, socialist property was clearly articulated, and its organization had strong implications for how socialist firms might be privatized. Thus, what looked like a "property vacuum" to western advisors proved to be very full of property rules and relations, which impeded satisfactory privatization even years after the collapse of communist parties.