This book discusses the evolution of ideas about the desirable combination of planning and market in the former Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary since the 1960s, when major economic reforms started, up to 1992, when the countries became engaged in a transformation of their economies from 'socialist' to market economies. It also discusses the common and contrasting features of the debates in the countries mentioned.

In the second half of the 1980s a revolutionary change occurred in economic thinking about the socialist system in the countries under review. Up to that time the vast majority of economists still believed in the reformability of the socialist system, but this belief was slowly replaced by a belief in a market economy. This book captures not only this dramatic turnaround in thinking, but also tries to explain the reasons behind it.

The transition to a market economy, which is beset with formidable problems, has split the economic community, mainly into two groups: followers of shock treatment; and supporters of a gradual solution of the transformation problem. This study examines the diverse views on the transformation, and how the transformation itself is proceeding.