Dal comunismo alla società aperta / Systemic Change: The Delicate Mixture of Intentions and Spontaneity

Abstract disponibile solo in lingua inglese

Systemic change is an evolutionary process, based on a very complicated mixture of planned and unplanned, or, to put it differently, on a mixture of intentions and spontaneity. Intended, organised measures play an important role; the understanding of this logic makes the process shorter and diminishes transformation costs. Assisting the creation of a new social order requires the implementation of liberalisation and deregulation measures and the enactment of new rules defining certain abstract features of the new order; but the process itself is largely a spontaneous one, which finally establishes new political, social and economic arrangements. The transformation process is divided into three basic stages, each of which has both a spontaneous and an intentional side. The main tasks for the first stage include political liberalisation, the elimination of old subsidies, fiscal and monetary stabilisation policies, independence of the central bank and liberalisation of prices and foreign trade. In the second stage, overall privatisation must be accompanied by continuing macroeconomic stabilisation and the rationalisation of social policy. If these measures are successfully implemented, stage three, which might be termed one of early post-transformation, is reached.