Making Capitalism without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe (Hardback)

Focuses on the transition from socialism to capitalism in Eastern Europe since the 1980s, where capitalism was made without a capitalist class. This text reflects on the sociological characteristics of the Communist system and offers a theory of post-Communist societies. 1989 is seen as a successful revolution led by the former technocratic fraction of the old Communist ruling estate against the bureaucracy. In order to secure its victory, however, the technocracy had to make substantial concessions to the former dissident intelligentsia. The irony of the post-Communist way to capitalism is that these most unlikely actors see "building capitalism" as their historic task.