A la recherche de la firme post­communiste : droits de propriété et débureaucratisation

Abstract

In search of the post-communist firm : property rights and debureaucra- tization. In countries which are in transition to a market economy, a widereaching movement in the transfer of property rights is at present in progress. This movement is partly based on a free distribution of coupons which are ultimately exchanged for shares in privatized firms. The principles underlying an operation of this kind assume that a shareowning public is the ideal medium for the transition to capitalism, and that it is possible for enterprises to be privatized before they are restructured. What is really at stake is privatization of the economy by enabling the private sector to achieve progressive dominance of the economy. Privatizations of State enterprises seem a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition. Above all, what Eastern Europe urgently needs is genuine entrepreneurs and good lawyers. Moves to privatize must be accompanied by effective demonopolization and debureaucratization of economic activities. It is also advisable to establish institutional guidelines which are simple but favourable to the expansion of private enterprise in a commercial context. It is the new enterprises which will be required to be the principal sources of economic growth in the long term, and not the privatized remnants of State firms. Special attention should be paid to commercial law, contract law and the kind of legislation governing competition which theses firms will be facing. While the authorities certainly have a part to play in laying down such guide-lines, there is a danger that efforts at privatization, carried out in a technocratic manner, could in fact increase the economic weight of a State which is already politically weakened, without solving the problems of management and efficiency that are associated with State enterprises.