Overcentralization in Economic Administration: A Critical Analysis Based on Experience in Hungarian Light Industry

Overcentralization in Economic Administration (Oxford, 1959) was the first book written by an Eastern European and published in the West that openly criticized socialist central planning. In this work the distinguished economist Janos Kornai begins a lifelong study of the economic organization of centrally planned economies. Professor Kornai’s aim in this book was to observe the reality of the working socialist system, and to draw conclusions that were not distorted by the laws of Marxist political economy. He provided a lucid and coherent account of conditions, along with normative recommendations which influenced the Hungarian reform process, culminating in the economic changes of 1968. Professor Kornai identified several systematic failures of the centrally planned economy and gave a prescient account of weak economic performance and eventual disintegration. His argument for radical rather than partial change makes this book essential reading for those interested in the economics of transition in Eastern Europe.