Editor's Introduction

Abstract

There appears to be little disagreement among Russian economists— and by now among the population at large—on the general issue of the need for eventual privatization or denationalization of the bulk of productive property. But there are considerable differences in views on the appropriate speed of privatization and the most effective forms of nonstate property ownership. In our opening selection Aleksandr Bim is critical of the relatively slow pace of privatization which, in his view, has obstructed the creation of a genuine market environment ("Privatization in Russia: Problems of the Immediate Future"). Bun's main criticism, however, is directed at denationalization procedures that tend to favor "collective ownership," i.e., the transfer of controlling shares of property to work collectives and plant managers. The author's concern is that such firms are likely to behave very much like the state socialist enterprises of the past. They will seek to perpetuate customary jobs and production structures, reproduce familiar egalitarian wage practices, and continue efforts to receive state subsidies. Moreover, foreign investors are hardly likely to sink much capital in a business environment in which controlling shares are owned by work collectives.