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Extract: A set of economic reforms called the New Economic Mechanism (NEM) was introduced in Bulgaria in 1979 in an attempt to reverse a decade of slowing prouction growth and escalating costs. The NEM was intended to spur productivity increases by decentralizing management, giving individual production units more control over production and input decisions, and tying enterprise income and workers' wages more closely to production results. However, in the 4 years since its implementation the NEM has not yet been fully implemented. Decisionmaking is still highly centralized, and unprofitable firms continue to be subsidized. While production growth has been respectable, it has been achieved at great cost to the Bulgarian economy as input costs have continued to rise.
The idea for this book began in Sofia, Bulgaria in September, 1992 when we met to plot a course for our University Affiliations project which had been recently funded by the U.S. Infonnation Agency. We believed that worldng on the book would provide valuable learning experiences for all the cooperators, and that the book itself would make a useful contribution to understanding the economic transition process and its policy implications. We recognized that a project of this nature would require the skills and knowledge of many people. To those 34 additional contributors to this volume, and to the many other friends, colleagues, and experts who gave generous advice, we give our sincerest thanks. We also acknowledge with thanks the support of several organizations to a reality. Much of the that transfonned this book from an idea research reported here was a major part of an educational project funded by the University Affiliations Program of the U.S. Information Agency. The project linked the University of California, Berkeley, Wye College of London University, and the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Sofia, in a cooperative effort to improve the quality of policy analysis. The research provided hands-on experience necessary for effective teaching in this area.
The collapse of state socialism in 1989 focused attention on the transition to democracy and capitalism in Eastern Europe. But for many people who actually lived through the transition, the changes were often disappointing. In Domesticating Revolution, Gerald Creed explains this unexpected outcome through a detailed study of economic reforms in one Bulgarian village.
When one has worked on a series of projects as long as I have on those that make up this book, one incurs a tremendous debt that can never be appropriately acknowledged. Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I did not make note of at least the largest and most obvious of contributions made by others. The oldest part of the work is the Yugoslav case study, which began as my doctoral dissertation. I received funding from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), which allowed me to spend an all-too-brief but productive five months in z&greb in 1982. During this time, I was greatly aided by the advice and criticism of Professor Vladimir Stipetic of the University of Zagreb. As I worked on the dissertation, John Pencavel and Evsey Domar taught me much about critical thinking and clear writing, as well as economics. To them I owe a special debt of gratitude for the often difficult task they undertook of simply keeping track of my whereabouts. In addition, the Yugoslav study benefited from the critical contributions of Paul David and members of the development and history seminars at Stanford and the comments of Tim Bates and two anonymous referees and the editor at the Review of Economics and Statistics, where the core material was first published as •The Performance of Private and Cooperative Socialist Organimtion: Postwar Yugoslav Agriculture; 69, 2 (May 1987): 205-214, copyright 1987 by Elsevier Science Publishers. I would like to thank Elsevier Science Publishers for kind permission to reprint portions of this article in chapter 3.
As Europe underwent extraordinary changes in 1989-1990, the continent's south-eastern region - the Balkans - began once again to draw attention for its ethnic rivalries, its political turmoil and its interstate disputes. Continuing tensions and instability have fostered images of a Balkan imbroglio where regional instability could affect all of Europe. This study offers country-specific and comparative assessments of political trends during this transitional era, placing emphasis on matters of international security, socioeconomic policy and political leadership. Also considered are the requisite conditions for democracy in the role of the military in a civil society, and the manner in which security can be achieved without overarching, hegemonic alliances.