A Fourth Way?

This collection on the privatization of property ownership seeks to explore the middle ground between state socialism and corporate capitalism. The text examines the transition to market economies in post-communist Eastern Europe and considers Western experiences with alternative forms of ownership. Several essays focus on the impediments to the transition to market economies in Poland, Hungary and Germany. Others consider the problems of active participation, self-governance and domination involved in some forms of private ownership. The editors propose a new conception of property, and the possibility of a "fourth way" that mediates between classical liberalism and state socialism. They discuss new modes of ownership in the context of housing, industrial property and other areas of social life which avoid the unfortunate connotations associated in the past with the notion of a "third way".