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• Black economy in the Soviet Union

  132-140.

  Marianna Pénzes

  Views:

  49

  The study is based on G. Mars and Y. Altman, "The cultural bases of soviet Georgia's se-cond economy" (Soviet Studies 1983. Vol. XXXV [4]: 546-560), and G. Mars and Y. Altman, "The cultural bases of Soviet Central Asia's second economy (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan)", 1986 (Central Asian Survey 5 [3-4]: 195-204). The second economy, as the socialist version of the informal economy proposed by Grossman1 , can be defined as the set of economic activities that are aimed at personal gain and are in opposition to the current legal regulations. In this sense, Altman also considers all economic transactions that are in opposition to the current legislation to be informal.2 In the Soviet Union, at least in the period up to Gorbachev's reform, the second economy was a significant area of the economy, forming a continuum where, for example, there was no private ownership of agricultural land, but where goods grown at home (in the backyard) could be sold in markets, and where the kolhoz and the sovhoz (the Hungarian equivalents of the tsz and the state farm) had very different farming conditions.

• Electoral Systems in East Central Europe

  26-50

  Gyorgy Fabian

  Views:

  47

  The democratic transition in Eastern and Central Europe provides a good opportunity to
  examine how to apply the findings of the science of elections in a new dimension. This study
  based on 167 elections in 23 countries shows the formation, evolution and political consequences
  of the new electoral systems. The hypothesis of the paper is that the elections and electoral
  systems in this region not always correspond to the conventional wisdom. Our analysis divides
  into five parts the region (Central Europe, Western and Eastern Balkans, Baltic States and the
  other former republics of Soviet Union). This division helps to get an sophisticatad picture about
  the emergence and changes of the new electoral systems. By showing country by country we can
  demonstrate the similarities and differences between and within subgroups as well. Finally
  using three well-known indices (least square index, effective electoral and parliamentary
  number of parties) the study summarizes – country by country and subgroups by subgroups by
  type – the political consequences for the proportionality and party structure. The analysis of the
  167 elections demonstrates that Eastern and Central Europe does not show uniformity regarding
  the political consequences of the electoral systems. Their influence is more moderate than in the
  established democracies and they are also much more volatile. Their changes have shown rather
  diverging than converging trend in the last quarter century. The conventional findings are
  difficult to apply for this region, they are only partially valid, especially the formation of party
  structure differ from the previous experiences. In sum the Eastern and Central European elections
  do not invalidate the conventional statements of the elctoral studies but they offen do not show
  corresponding image. So they significantly contribute to the further development and refinement
  of the previous findings.