What does 'change of system' mean? An attempt to clarify the concept

• Authors: Kornai J.
• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

It has often been said in political debate in recent months that there was no 'real change of system', that a 'new change of system' is needed. The study tries to interpret the concept of systemic change, strictly dividing the positive from the normative approach to the question. It advances an answer to the question: what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for stating - in a positive sense - that the change of system has occurred? This calls for careful study of whether the conditions have been fulfilled in the economic and political fields. The author takes a similar approach to considering the minimum (necessary and sufficient) conditions for establishing democracy. Where normative criteria apply, choice depends on the value system of the assessor individual or group. Those displeased with prevailing conditions are wont to mention two unfulfilled value-related criteria: 1. there has been no real 'changing of the guard'; no radical change in the composition of the elite has occurred, and 2. justice has not been done; those responsible for the crimes of the old regime have not been punished. The study examines these problems and concludes with some observations on the importance of conceptual clarification.

Keywords

EN

CHANGE OF SYSTEM; DEMOCRACY

Discipline

• ECONOMICS: ECONOMICS

• Publisher: Committee for Economic Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kozgazdasagi Szemle (Economic Review)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 303-321
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Kornai J.

• J. Kornai, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07HUAAAA02996150