Publication
Open Access

A Good Buy – If You Can Get One. Purchasing cars under socialist conditions

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
License
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
1830-7728
Issue Date
Type of Publication
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Citation
EUI MWP; 2010/14
Cite
GATEJEL, Luminita, A Good Buy – If You Can Get One. Purchasing cars under socialist conditions, EUI MWP, 2010/14 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/14197
Abstract
This paper gives a panoramic mapping of the infamous socialist ‘economy of shortages’ (Kornai) as it was lived and experienced by ordinary socialist citizens. It starts out by framing the general conditions under which private consumption took place in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Romania in the last three decades of real existing socialism. Consumption issues were settled throughout the Eastern Block in the form of bargains between the state authorities and the population, in which political obedience was traded for material satisfaction. And cars were among the major assets to be distributed, especially as the amount produced could hardly cover the demand. The paper provides several examples of how the official politics of shortages dealt with this issue using politically motivated preferential distribution. In a step further, it elaborates on the inventiveness of the citizen in bending the rules of retail. These subterfuges in the shadow economy constantly challenged planned rationality and in the end wore out the ideology of official consumption.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
External Links
Publisher
Version
Research Projects
Sponsorship and Funder Information