#5 - JRL 7281
Moscow Times
August 8, 2003
letter
From Socialist Ideals to the Capitalist Dream
Anders Aslund responds to "Problems of Unstable Privatization
Edifice," a comment by Marshall I. Goldman on July 31. That comment was
written in
response to "The Drama Is Putin's, But So Are the Results," a comment
by
Aslund
on July 25.
Editor,
I confess. I have persistently supported early and quick democratization,
price liberalization, financial stabilization and privatization in Russia.
Sure I
was there, even if Marshall I. Goldman kindly exaggerates my significance. I
have always liked Goldman as a sparring partner. He reliably opposes any
Russian government, regardless of its policies.
Yes, I prefer capitalism to socialism. I do believe that capitalism generates
most welfare, and capitalism presupposes private property. The old utopians
wanted perfect socialism, as some academics now dream of ideal privatization.
Alas, in the real world nothing is faultless. The actual choice was not
between perfect and poor privatization but between politically possible
privatization and none. Four years of 6.5 percent average annual GDP growth
and 7.2
percent so far this year suggest that Russia did something right. Crashes
do occur
under capitalism, as NASDAQ's recent fall of 76 percent has illustrated,
while
Russian stock indices have multiplied.
Russia might not have a Bill Gates, but it has many Rockefellers thanks to
its inherited industrial structure and radical privatization.
According to Berkeley Professor Bradford de Long, in current dollars, the
United States had 22 billionaires or robber barons in 1900, so 17 might be
about
right for Russia at this stage. As measured in Gini coefficients, inequality
in Russia is actually slightly less than in the United States.
My prime concern today is the insecurity of property rights in Russia and the
remaining arbitrariness of state power. That was the theme of my article.
Goldman disagrees, but that is not new: During the 1996 presidential
elections,
he even joined Russian communist academicians in an open letter criticizing
privatization.
Anders Aslund
Director
Russian and Eurasian Program
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Washington
Aug. 8, 2003:
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