János Kornai, the Austrians, and the political and economic analysis of socialism

Boettke, Peter J.; Candela, Rosolino A.

doi:10.1007/s11127-020-00851-0

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In this way, a coherent, positive descriptive language of political economy was created. Existing literature recognizes that Kornai, inspired by various schools of economic thought (Boettke -Candela 2021;Ellman 2021) and following the "system paradigm" as a methodological principle (Kornai 2000) was able to capture the systemic and inevitable flaws of the socialist system. This is a significant contribution to the academic discipline of political economy (Csaba 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From “actually existing socialism” to actually existing post-socialism: János Kornai and the importance of language reform in political economy

Madlovics,

Magyar

2023

AOecon

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This paper discusses the contributions of János Kornai to the “language reform” of socialism and post-socialism, meaning the creation of new conceptual frameworks to replace the mainstream interpretation of the system with a more realistic, critical description. We show that, in the three waves of language reform under the Kádár regime – economics, sociology, and law – Kornai was a trailblazer by introducing concepts like “soft budget constraint,” “plan bargaining,” and “shortage,” which became key concepts for reform economists and dissident intellectuals in Eastern Europe. We discuss Kornai's work on post-socialism as well, particularly his paper “The System Paradigm Revisited,” and point out its merits and shortcomings in the description of the regimes of the region. Presenting our offer for a new language reform, based on Kornai, we underline the importance of proper words for understanding “actually existing post-socialism,” and the task of political economists to revise the current mainstream and analyse the phenomena of post-communist “relational economies.”

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From “actually existing socialism” to actually existing post-socialism: János Kornai and the importance of language reform in political economy

Madlovics,

Magyar

2023

AOecon

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“…At the end of that subperiod, Kornai became a critic of the Walrasian general equilibrium. He started keeping distance from Lange and approaching von Mises and Hayek (Boettke & Candela, 2021). Kornai also mobilized the Marshallian concept of 'normal state' (Vahabi, 1998) to argue that each economic system should be characterized by its specific chronic disequilibria rather than by its equilibrium states.…”

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confidence: 99%

In Janos Kornai’s memory

Vahabi

2021

Public Choice

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State capacity and the socialist calculation debate

Bunyk

Krasnozhon

2022

Southern Economic Journal

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Despite its invaluable contribution to the field of comparative economics, the socialist calculation debate has focused on the narrow topic of the impossibility of the rational economic calculation under socialism. The literature on new institutional economics suggests that economic development is determined by economic and political institutions which are far more complex than the issue of economic calculation. To bridge the gap between the calculation debate and new institutional economics, this paper utilizes the historical case studies of Perestroika and Deng's China to demonstrate relationship between state capacity and economic calculation. We argue that rational economic calculation requires the state's institutional ability to make a credible commitment to constraints inhibiting public predation.

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János Kornai, the Austrians, and the political and economic analysis of socialism

Cited by 11 publications

References 39 publications

From “actually existing socialism” to actually existing post-socialism: János Kornai and the importance of language reform in political economy

From “actually existing socialism” to actually existing post-socialism: János Kornai and the importance of language reform in political economy

In Janos Kornai’s memory

State capacity and the socialist calculation debate

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