The State, International Agencies, and Property Transformation in Postcomimmist Hungary

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Issue Date
2002-07Author
Hanley, Eric
King, Lawrence
Janos, Istvan Toth
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This article challenges evolutionary accounts of property transformation
in postcommunist Hungary, which hold that novel property
forms based on interenterprise ownership have emerged in that
country. It shows that private property has emerged as the predominant
category of ownership in Hungary and explains the rapid
diffusion of private ownership by focusing on the actions of the state
and international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund
and the European Union. Following the collapse of communism,
state actors in Hungary promoted the domestic accumulation of
capital by subsidizing the sale of state enterprises to private parties,
particularly enterprise insiders. Pressures from international agencies
ultimately forced government officials to abandon this policy,
however, and to conform to a neoliberal model of the state that
allowed direct foreign investment. The conclusion considers the capacity
of states to intervene in economic processes in an environment
increasingly dominated by suprastate agencies.
Description
This is the published version. Copyright 2002 University of Chicago Press.
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Citation
Hanley, Eric, Lawrence King, and Istvan Toth Janos. "The State, International Agencies, and Property Transformation in Postcommunist Hungary." American Journal of Sociology Am J Sociol 108.1 (2002): 129-67. Web.
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