The book addresses the management of privatization in post-communist countries and is aimed at defining and analyzing contextual and organizational characteristics of privatization in these transitional economies to build effective business concerns that behave competitively. While privatization has recently become popular and widely used in former socialist countries, its organizational requirements have often been overlooked. The book demonstrates salient features as well as dynamic relationships among various organizational properties of privatized firms. The volume includes both conceptual foundations and practical suggestions for transformation from a command economy to a market economy from a managerial and organizational perspectives. Additionally, it includes examples of privatization in Eastern and Central Europe. It will appeal to students, policy makers, and managers of privatization in post-communist countries. This book presents an outstanding body of research on theoretical and practical aspects of the various applications of privatization in post-communist countries. A thorough analysis of strategy, structure, behavior, and process of transformation from a command to a market economy is discussed. The volume presents illustrative cases from Eastern Europe and provides a wide range of critical issues including planning, restructuring industrial organization, technology management, and human resource management based on personal experience of the authors or extensive studies on privatization in former socialist countries. It is an excellent source for further understanding the reasons for successes or failures of a variety of privatization applications.

This book provides a unique and detailed examination of the complex processes of transformation in former state-owned enterprises in the Czech Republic. Drawing on in-depth case studies of organizational transformation, the authors adopt a social-institutionalist approach to the study of organizational change, applying it in order to develop an explanation of organizational restructuring and management redefinition during the early transition period of 1990-1996. In particular, they highlight how these processes have been shaped by continuing historical state-socialist legacies and the powerful role played by senior managers in their efforts to fashion the new privatized organizations in their own interests.

Although it has been more than 20 years since Communism crumbled in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, many scholars and politicians still wonder what the lifting of the Iron Curtain has really meant for these former Communist countries. And, because these countries were largely closed off to the world for so long, there has yet to be an all-inclusive study on their administrative systems—until now. In Public Administration in Post-Communist Countries: Former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and Mongolia, expert contributors supply a comprehensive overview and analysis of public administration in their respective post-Communist countries. They illustrate each country’s transformation from an authoritarian system of governance into a modern, market-based, and in some cases, democratic government. The book covers the countries that were officially part of the Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan); those that were theoretically independent but were subject to Soviet-dominated Communist rule (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Poland); as well as a satellite republic that was under significant Soviet influence (Mongolia). Each chapter includes a brief introduction to the specific country, an overview of politics and administration, and discussions on key aspects of public management and administration—including human resource management, public budgeting, financial management, corruption, accountability, political and economic reform, civil society, and prospects for future development in the region. The book concludes by identifying common themes and trends and pinpointing similarities and differences to supply you with a broad comparative perspective.

Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe assesses the influence of electoral systems on political change in 20 post-communist European states. The main finding is that electoral institutions have systematic effects on the formation of representative structures. 'Party-enabling' aspects of electoral laws such as list proportional representation tend to foster popular inclusion in politics and institutionalized party systems, whereas 'politician-enabling' rules such as single-member districts and ballots that allow voters to select individuals often favour the development of weakly structured systems and high levels of popular exclusion from the representative process.

Theorizing Transition provides a comprehensive examination of the economic, political, social and cultural transformations in post-Communist countries and an important critique of transition theory and policy. The authors create the basis of a theoretical understanding of transition in terms of a political economy of capitalist development. The diversity of forms and complexities of transition are examined through a wide range of examples from post-Soviet countries and comparative studies from countries such as Vietnam and China. Theorizing Transition challenges many of the comfortable assumptions unleashed by the euphoria of democratisation and the triumphalism of market capitalism in the early 1990s and shows transition to be much more complex than mainstream theory suggests.

Post-communist transformation differs from any previous experience of societies in transition by its scope, speed, international framework and complicity. It contains elements of democratization, marketization, nation building, and the creation of a new international environment in the framework of globalization. The contributors give an 'internal' perspective of these highly complicated processes in a comparative form and using a multidisciplinary approach.