The Decay of Economic Stalinism

"Why is it that the bad political habits of Stalinism are more easily overcome than the economic system formed during this period of socialist feudal reaction?" asked professor Waclaw Wilczyiski in a paper at the 1987 Congress of Polish Economists in Cracow. To be sure, there is room for doubt on whether Stalinism will prove any easier to vanquish in politics than in the economy. Still, one must agree with professor Wilczynski that "the lack of a basic analysis of its [theoretical] basis, as well as the avoidance of fundamental questions defining the essence of the economic system, is the main cause of weakness in a reform process characterized by palliatives and half-measures, an inability to make unequivocal decisions, and a murky guiding conception." Such reflections might seem superfluous to many, since there is an apparently widespread conviction that the last word on the subject has already been spoken. Besides, economic Stalinism is a thing of the past. It can be plausibly argued that Stalinism in the economy is simply the system of administrative command and distribution. But should we look to the manner in which the national economy is administered for the essence of the system? I believe such a procedure is scientifically unwarranted. If we accept such reasoning, what is supposed to be essential would simply be derived from other features. In other words, the system for administering the national economy and individual enterprises is the result of specific political and property relations. If the latter remain unchanged, postulating changes in the administrative system (essential changes, of course) would simply be an exercise in the sort of wishful thinking that still imprisons Polish economics.