Kornai János: “The Citizen and the State: Reform of the Welfare System“. Emergo. Winter, 1998. pp. 2-14. Original: 5.93, in Hungarian, 1996. In German: 1996. In English: 1997.
Dear Emergo Reader, This is the first non-thematic issue of Emergo and the first issue not edited by a Guest Editor. Until now, most issues of Emergo have focused on a single aspect of the transforming economies and societies. Normally, the articles in most of the previous issues of Emergo reported on the findings of a research group that had been meeting for several years or they presented the main results of a relevant conference. The head of a research group or the convenor of a conference functioned as Guest Editor. They were usually responsible for selecting and compiling the articles. The topics covered until now included fiscal policy (No. 2/1), industrial markets (No. 2/3), labour market (No. 1/2), political economy (Nos. 1/1 & 2/4), privatisation (No. 2/2), real estate (Nos. 2/2 & 3/3), regional policy (No. 2/4), social insurance (No. 4/2), environmental issues (No. 4/3), etc. This issue has a different, and in one sense more normal content. It brings together several disparate articles that are neither the results of the work of an on-going research team, nor the major findings of a major conference on the transformation processes. The first two articles were originally intended for the special issue of Emergo on social insurance in Central and Eastern Europe, No. 4/2. They are broadly comparative or theoretical, rather than country-specific. For reasons of space they could not be published at that time. However, that issue did include an article by Dr. George Soros - "The Open Society Reconsidered" - which is a revised version of his well-known article from The Atlantic Monthly, Dagens Nyheter, etc., on capitalism with a human face. A different point of view is presented here by Professor János Kornai of the Budapest Collegium for Advanced Studies. He calls for pure-market solutions to reforms of social insurance in Central and Eastern Europe. Originally, we hoped to contribute to a mini-debate between two distinguished Hungarians, one an academician, the other a practitioner. The social price of transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe is discussed by Dr Victor Pestoff, of the Modern Society Programme at Södertörns högskola, in his article on "Reforming Social Services in Central and Eastern Europe - Meso-Level Institutional Change after the Fall of Communism". The other three articles included here all use Poland as a case for study. Professor Jerzy Mikutowski Pomorski, Chair of European Studies, Cracow University of Economics, and Rector of the CUE between 1990-96, presents an article on "Post-Communist Europe and the Understanding of Change: the Case of Poland". He discusses the loss of value, using D. Reisman's The Lonely Crowd as a starting point and presents five typologies to reflect citizen behaviour in Poland. Professor Grzegorz W. Kotodko, of the World Bank and formerly Poland's finance minister, presents an article on "From Market Reforms to Transition to a Market Economy: the Case of Poland". He compares the early starters in the reform process - Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia - with the laggards, and explains why Poland is doing better that the rest. Dr Ngai-Ling Sum, of Manchester University in the UK, contributes an article on "Cross-Border Sub-Regionalism in East Asia: Some Implications for the German-Polish Border Regions". She discusses growth triangles and polygons in terms of their effort to reposition themselves for better geo-governance, and asks what are the implications for Poland and the Polish-German border. Dr Victor A. Pestoff Modern Society Programme at Södertörns högskola, Stockholm's newly established Baltic Sea university. Box 4101, S-141 04 Huddinge, Sweden e-mail: Victor.Pestoff@sh.se EMERGO Vol.5, No. 1