Geography 918 WEEKLY READING INTERROGATIONS # 3

1. Peter Brinson What is the take-home message of the final chapter in Democracy and the Market, entitled “The Political Dynamics of Economic Reform”? In the chapter, Przeworski is primarily concerned with showing the potential economic changes and dynamics that can accompany the transition from a command to a capitalist economy and the political dynamics that are inextricably tied up in the process. Though he is specifically concerned with whether or not such changes can occur in a democracy (vs. an authoritarian regime), his discussion of the issue reduces its complexity and makes so many assumptions as to make his models inapplicable. . [JAP: OK, but how much “complexity” should we allow, and how should we conceptualize it? Could we acknowledge that this analysis points to tendencies and immanent possibilities that ought to be taken into account, whatever the level of contingency in the analysis (for example, concerning the sober evaluation of the potential for centralized planning, or the calculations of some strategic actors concerning the desirability of democratic channels of politics)? Do we declare it inoperable by virtue of its limiting assumptions?]