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Eastern Europe and the World Economy: Challenges of Transition and Globalization
Book review / Political Geography 19 (2000) 397–406
401
Eastern Europe and the World Economy: Challenges of Transition and Globalization I. Zloch-Christy; Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 1998, xv+293 pages. It would be nice to be able to report that this book is a welcome and useful addition to the literature on the post-communist economic transition of central and eastern Europe; however, potential readers should not be misled: it is disappointing. Notwithstanding its title, only about half of it is concerned with central and eastern Europe, and even here only the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are discussed in any detail. A map on the book’s dust jacket suggests that Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will also be covered, but references to them are brief. Eastern Europe, as it is now commonly defined—Russia, the Ukraine, the Baltic states, Moldova and the Caucasian countries—rather than central Europe, gets little mention. The editor claims that the book is integrated and coherent; however, it is neither. The first third is largely theoretical. After a brief introduction, chapters provide, in turn, a theoretical approach to systems of industrial governance, with a brief reference to the development of computers by the American Department of Defense after 1958; an outline of the ways in which states may discriminate economically against foreigners; and a discussion of privatisation in relation to the Second Fundamental Theorem in Welfare Economics. Given the book’s title, it might have been assumed that these early chapters would have been used to provide an integrated introduction to transition and globalisation theory; unfortunately, they have not. Readers must wait until the final page of the book for a brief introduction to globalisation; there is no definition of transition in either the book’s introduction or conclusion. Somewhat more extensive reference is made to central Europe in some of the other chapters. There is an outline of some developments in Hungary in relation to that country’s intention to enter the European Union (EU), and a concise account of the macro-economic changes that the countries aspiring to membership of the EU must make. The most substantial and well-presented contribution is that by van Brabant, on the GATT and the World Trade Organisation, though the general thrust of the chapter is about international trade organisations, rather than the transition economies. Similarly, a discussion on the desirability of the transition economies adopting long-term industrial policies has little to say in detail about the changes that have already occurred or might be precipitated by current policies in their industrial structures. A discussion about venture capital provides brief and generalised accounts of progress up to the mid-1990s in the provision of appropriate conditions for the attraction of foreign investment to the region. There is a brief, comparative analysis of privatisation in China and Poland, but it is largely a repeat of previouslypublished work. The final chapters focus largely on eastern Asia. There is a short comparison of the way in which Germany and Japan attempted to gain territory in the late 1980s and early 1990s through the use of economic aid: Germany to obtain Soviet agreement to reunification and Japan to secure the return of the Kurile Islands. There is a substantial piece about Japanese industrial policy; however, it makes no reference to the difficulties that that country was already facing in the early 1990s, and was written
402
Book review / Political Geography 19 (2000) 397–406
before the east Asian collapse of 1997; and a chapter on the political transition of Hong Kong, though it was written before the handover to China. If there is a theme running through this collection of essays it is to do with industrial policy, and the need for one, especially in a time of systemic change, if unnecessary damage is not to be done to the economic structure of countries that are in transition. However, even if those who advocate such an approach were correct, it is now too late to save many of the industries that had been built up under central planning in central and eastern Europe, and to that extent the book’s value is reduced. The fact that there are many who, for good reason, would disagree with such an approach is ignored. A subsidiary theme appears to be the opportunities offered by industrial policy for the development of the manufacture of high-technology products, though this, too, finds no mention in the book’s conclusion. Looking back over the contributions as a whole, the reader might well form the impression that few of the authors have much detailed knowledge of central and eastern Europe. Alternatively, readers might conclude that contributors have written very largely on matters of interest to themselves, rather than in a collaborative attempt to throw light on what the editor rightly calls ‘one of the most fascinating issues of contemporary world politics’ (page 1). An opportunity has been missed. The book would also have benefited from some more robust editing. It has not been as carefully proof-read as it might; there is some repetition; and some chapters lack bibliographies. It is dedicated ‘to the women in the profession of economics and social sciences’, but, besides the editor, only one contributor is female, and her piece is not about eastern Europe. A.H. Dawson 0962-6298/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 2 - 6 2 9 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 5 7 - 8
Memory and the Postcolony: African Anthropology and the Critique of Power R. Werbner (editor), 1998, London, Zed Books Memory, and the places of memory, have long been important in historical studies, not least in Britain and France, and seem increasingly so. Some are concerned with seeking redress by recalling forgotten, perhaps repressed, stories (for example in women’s studies, and studies of the British working class). Others attempt to set the record straight (as in accounts of wartime collaboration or anti-Semitism in France) because of its continuing contemporary significance. Others again are concerned with ‘memory work’ (see below) and memorialising, with the way in which history (or some history) is discovered/rediscovered and recuperated for the present, as with the Clovis anniversary, and how, in Britain especially, history easily becomes ‘heritage’,
401
Eastern Europe and the World Economy: Challenges of Transition and Globalization I. Zloch-Christy; Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 1998, xv+293 pages. It would be nice to be able to report that this book is a welcome and useful addition to the literature on the post-communist economic transition of central and eastern Europe; however, potential readers should not be misled: it is disappointing. Notwithstanding its title, only about half of it is concerned with central and eastern Europe, and even here only the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are discussed in any detail. A map on the book’s dust jacket suggests that Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will also be covered, but references to them are brief. Eastern Europe, as it is now commonly defined—Russia, the Ukraine, the Baltic states, Moldova and the Caucasian countries—rather than central Europe, gets little mention. The editor claims that the book is integrated and coherent; however, it is neither. The first third is largely theoretical. After a brief introduction, chapters provide, in turn, a theoretical approach to systems of industrial governance, with a brief reference to the development of computers by the American Department of Defense after 1958; an outline of the ways in which states may discriminate economically against foreigners; and a discussion of privatisation in relation to the Second Fundamental Theorem in Welfare Economics. Given the book’s title, it might have been assumed that these early chapters would have been used to provide an integrated introduction to transition and globalisation theory; unfortunately, they have not. Readers must wait until the final page of the book for a brief introduction to globalisation; there is no definition of transition in either the book’s introduction or conclusion. Somewhat more extensive reference is made to central Europe in some of the other chapters. There is an outline of some developments in Hungary in relation to that country’s intention to enter the European Union (EU), and a concise account of the macro-economic changes that the countries aspiring to membership of the EU must make. The most substantial and well-presented contribution is that by van Brabant, on the GATT and the World Trade Organisation, though the general thrust of the chapter is about international trade organisations, rather than the transition economies. Similarly, a discussion on the desirability of the transition economies adopting long-term industrial policies has little to say in detail about the changes that have already occurred or might be precipitated by current policies in their industrial structures. A discussion about venture capital provides brief and generalised accounts of progress up to the mid-1990s in the provision of appropriate conditions for the attraction of foreign investment to the region. There is a brief, comparative analysis of privatisation in China and Poland, but it is largely a repeat of previouslypublished work. The final chapters focus largely on eastern Asia. There is a short comparison of the way in which Germany and Japan attempted to gain territory in the late 1980s and early 1990s through the use of economic aid: Germany to obtain Soviet agreement to reunification and Japan to secure the return of the Kurile Islands. There is a substantial piece about Japanese industrial policy; however, it makes no reference to the difficulties that that country was already facing in the early 1990s, and was written
402
Book review / Political Geography 19 (2000) 397–406
before the east Asian collapse of 1997; and a chapter on the political transition of Hong Kong, though it was written before the handover to China. If there is a theme running through this collection of essays it is to do with industrial policy, and the need for one, especially in a time of systemic change, if unnecessary damage is not to be done to the economic structure of countries that are in transition. However, even if those who advocate such an approach were correct, it is now too late to save many of the industries that had been built up under central planning in central and eastern Europe, and to that extent the book’s value is reduced. The fact that there are many who, for good reason, would disagree with such an approach is ignored. A subsidiary theme appears to be the opportunities offered by industrial policy for the development of the manufacture of high-technology products, though this, too, finds no mention in the book’s conclusion. Looking back over the contributions as a whole, the reader might well form the impression that few of the authors have much detailed knowledge of central and eastern Europe. Alternatively, readers might conclude that contributors have written very largely on matters of interest to themselves, rather than in a collaborative attempt to throw light on what the editor rightly calls ‘one of the most fascinating issues of contemporary world politics’ (page 1). An opportunity has been missed. The book would also have benefited from some more robust editing. It has not been as carefully proof-read as it might; there is some repetition; and some chapters lack bibliographies. It is dedicated ‘to the women in the profession of economics and social sciences’, but, besides the editor, only one contributor is female, and her piece is not about eastern Europe. A.H. Dawson 0962-6298/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 2 - 6 2 9 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 5 7 - 8
Memory and the Postcolony: African Anthropology and the Critique of Power R. Werbner (editor), 1998, London, Zed Books Memory, and the places of memory, have long been important in historical studies, not least in Britain and France, and seem increasingly so. Some are concerned with seeking redress by recalling forgotten, perhaps repressed, stories (for example in women’s studies, and studies of the British working class). Others attempt to set the record straight (as in accounts of wartime collaboration or anti-Semitism in France) because of its continuing contemporary significance. Others again are concerned with ‘memory work’ (see below) and memorialising, with the way in which history (or some history) is discovered/rediscovered and recuperated for the present, as with the Clovis anniversary, and how, in Britain especially, history easily becomes ‘heritage’,