Review of: János Kornai, By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 2007

Chilosi, Alberto (2007): Review of: János Kornai, By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 2007. Forthcoming in: History of Economic Ideas , Vol. 2007, No. No. 2

Abstract

Kornai's autobiography presents an interesting perspective of the intellectual environment of a Central European country of real socialism such as Hungary, from the Stalinist after-war years to the progressively more relaxed, but still constraining, atmosphere of the sixties and later. Of specific interest for the economist is Kornai's inside witness of the actual functioning of a “real” socialist planned economy, and of the political processes related to it. In the intellectual side of the autobiography Kornai retraces the research process that to an almost life-long research project into the mathematical theory of socialist planning.

A further interesting aspect of Kornai's tome is his picture of the academic economic profession in the West seen with the eyes of an outsider turned insider, a kind of truly anthropological work.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Kornai, socialist planning, communism, market socialism, transition
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B3 - History of Economic Thought: Individuals > B31 - Individuals; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies

References

Heal, Geoffrey, The Theory of Economic Planning. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1973. Hirschman, Albert O., Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. Kornai, János, Overcentralization in Economic Administration: A Critical Analysis Based on Experience in Hungarian Light Industry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959 (Hungarian original version, 1957). Kornai, János and Tamás Liptak, “Two-Level Planning”. Econometrica, Vol. 33, No. 1. (Jan., 1965), pp. 141-169. Kornai, János, Economics of Shortage. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980. Kornai, János, "The Soft Budget Constraint," Kyklos, 1986,39(1), pp. 3-30. Kornai, János, "Resource-Constrained Versus Demand-Constrained Systems," Econometrica, July 1979, 47(4), pp. 801-19. Kornai, János, The Road to a Free Economy: Shifting from a Socialist System: The Example of Hungary. New York: Norton, 1990.