Cadre Capitalism in Hungary and Poland: Property Accumulation among Communist-Era Elites
Since the collapse of state socialism in eastern Europe in 1989, newspapers and academic journals alike have been full of accounts of "nomenklatura privatization" -the surreptitious seizure of state-owned property by communist-era officials. Respected scholars have even relabeled the former nomenklatura a "kleptoklatura" bent on enriching itself at the expense of society at large. Aside from the manifest injustice of this type of property seizure, journalists and academics have warned of dire economic consequences, as former cadres may be more interested in the short-term gains associated with rent-seeking behavior than in the long-term gains associated with the efficient management of assets. [...]
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