Berkeley Scholar to Compare Evolution of Eastern European and Chinese Systems in Upcoming Lecture

With the XVII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development only a week away, this year’s speakers are making final preparations for the event. As in previous years, the topics being covered in the honorary lectures and the various sessions are quite diverse.

On April 19, Gerard Roland, E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, is scheduled to give an honorary lecture in which he will compare the differences in political and economic evolution in Eastern Europe versus China.

‘They [Eastern Europe and China] are very different even though they led to the introduction of a market economy in both cases’, Roland says. ‘I will be focusing on the different evolution of the state: collapse of the communist power apparatus in Eastern Europe and its consequences and strengthening in China due to market reforms’.

In a recent interview with the HSE news service, Roland spoke of some of the key challenges facing post-Communist states today, especially Russia.

‘Following the collapse of the communist power structure, post-Communist states in Eastern Europe, and of course Russia, evolved into kleptocratic states where state power is divided between various oligarchic networks who use their political power for economic advantages and their economic power to gain power in the state apparatus’, he says. ‘They use the state as an ATM machine and corruption is widespread. Reforming these states is a completely new challenge. Vested interests have dug in deep and taken root in various key positions of the state apparatus and will defend themselves with the utmost energy to resist reforms that make the state more democratic, accountable, transparent and rule-based. We are only starting to understand the phenomenon, and it will take a long time to fight to change it. We are seeing these difficulties in Ukraine today’.

A first-time visitor to HSE, Roland hopes to connect with colleagues he has known for years.

‘I am afraid I will not have the time for sightseeing, but I do hope to have good discussions with colleagues I have known for decades and who I respect tremendously, like Viktor Polterovich, and many others’, he said.

Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for HSE News service