SMALL TRANSFORMATION AND GREAT TRANSITION IN EASTERN EUROPE. From Protectionist State Capitalism to Varieties of Private Capitalism. Imre LÉVAI, Ph.D., D.Sc. EADI General Conference September 2011, University of York

Outline of Discussion Clash of Varieties of Capitalism and the Remaking of World Order? Small Transformation or Great Transition? Adaptation and Varieties of Capitalism in Eastern Europe Conclusion

Clash of Varieties of Capitalism and the Remaking of World Order? Clash of (8) Civilisations (in S. Huntington): Clash of VoC! From Order to Disorder? From Hierarchy to Anarchy? From Order to Chaos? Chaos in Complex Social Systems Bifurcation and New Trajectory of World System Evolution?

Small Transformation or Great Transition? Transformation Transition State Socialism State Capitalism Public Ownership + Bureaucratic Coordination + (Monopolistic Political Power Structure) = Socialism (in J. Kornai) Transition from State Capitalism to Private Capitalism Great Transformation (in K. Polanyi)

Adaptation and Varieties of Capitalism in Eastern Europe Private Ownership + Market Coordination + (Competitive Political Power Structure) Capitalism Commodity Production and Exchange in General Accumulation of Capital + Exploitation of Free Labour Power (Varieties of Capital + Labour Market) VoC of Capitalism Paths of Adaptation (Responses) of VoC in Eastern Europe to Challenges of Global and Regional (European) Capitalist Systems Evolution

Conclusion Great Transformation from Varieties of Traditional Redistribution/Centricity and Reciprocity/Symmetry Based Society (and Autarchic Households) to Varieties of Modern (Capitalist) Market Economy (and Nation States) Small Transformation from Varieties of (Liberal and Protectionist) State Capitalism to Varieties of (Liberal and Protectionist) Private Capitalism Great Transition: Epochal Evolutionary Path of Global and Regional Systems of Capitalism to New Patterns of Accumulation of Capital and Exploitation of Labour Power (VoC)

Polanyi on Great Transformation No society could, naturally, live for any length of time unless it possessed an economy of some sort; but previously to our time no economy has ever existed that, even in principle, was controlled by markets. In spite of the chorus of academic incantations so persistent in the nineteenth century, gain and profit made on exchange never before played an important part in human economy. Though the institution of the market was fairly common since the later Stone Age, its role was no more than incidental to economic life. (Polanyi, K. The Great Transformation, Rinehart & Company, Inc, p. 43)