FROM PHOBIAS AND IDEOLOGICAL PRESCRIPTION - TOWARD MULTIPLE MODELS INTRANSFORMATION MANAGEMENT FOR SOCIALIST ECONOMIES IN TRANSITION

The article offers a comparative exploration of the variety and comple xity of economic transition strategies. There is also a compelling nee d to focus on the weaknesses of putative market forces when ''designin g'' appropriate strategies for transition and economic development. At tention is drawn to financial market failures and their impact on econ omic reconstruction and political liberalization experiences. Particul ar attention is drawn to the need for a critical assessment of develop mental strategies and transition models, and their potential ''shelf l ife,'' in the broader spectrum of debate about complex patterns of reg ulation and deregulation in mixed economies. The Russian experience wi th economic and political development cannot be lightly dismissed as i rrelevant to the management development agenda, especially in the face of the failure by Western social science to fully address the complex ities of economic and political transition that need to go beyond much of the ideological, and recently more rhetorical, arguments so far of fered by Western management and economic specialists.