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Kornai, János, and Susan Rose-Ackerman (eds.). Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
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Table of contents
Abstract
Reviews
Excerpt
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"Kornai and Rose-Ackerman have put together a tightly focused, theoretically ambitious,
empirically grounded set of essays on the problem of trust in post-socialist societies,
the central issue in the second stage of transition. This outstanding team of scholars
thinks deeply about the problem of developing institutions that are transparent,
capable of responding to democratic pressures, and not held captive by those who
managed to seize power in the first round of changes. The interdisciplinary and international
set of authors brings an unusually rich diversity of theories and methods to the
table, full of nuance and detail. This is a major contribution to our understanding
of the issues, and the experiences detailed and the lessons learned in post-socialist
Europe may well be brought to bear on an understanding and perhaps even a reform
of societies farther West."
—Kim Lane Scheppele,
John J. O'Brien Professor of Law and Sociology,
University of Pennsylvania
"Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition is an outstanding
contribution to the study of the problems of democratic consolidation in the former
Communist world. The editors, Professors Susan Rose-Ackerman and Janos Kornai, both
distinguished scholars of the economic transition, brought together a brilliant international
cast of authors to examine the moral, legal and political problems of building 'trust'
or 'social capital' without which in their view formally democratic institutions
lack reliability and accountability, and therefore legitimacy in the deeper sense
of that term. The double comparative perspective that runs through the volume is
especially helpful to students of the 'more successful' Central European cases that
are rightly contrasted both with consolidated Western and more authoritarian Eastern
democracies."
—Andrew Arato, author of
Civil Society, Constitution and Legitimacy
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