Overcentralization in Economic Administration

Originally published in 1959, this monograph by an Eastern European economist boldly and openly criticized socialist central planning. It is here reissued with a new preface. With this book, Kornai began a lifelong study of the economic organization of centrally planned economies. He identified several systemic failures of the centrally planned economy, and gave a prescient account of weak economic performance and eventual disintegration. Kornai's aim was to observe the reality of the working socialist system, and to draw conclusions that were not distorted by the laws of Marxist political economy. He provided a positive analysis of conditions, along with normative recommendations which influenced the Hungarian reform process, culminating in the economic changes of 1968.