Privatization in Ukraine: Economics, Law, and Politics

Abstract

Many in the Ukrainfan Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR or Ukraine), as in other Soviet Republics and in Eastern Europe, no longer view the traditional Soviet economic system as an adequate basis for a modern, efficient, and prosperous economy. They see the solution to wasteful resource allocation, shortages of commodities, and general economic stagnation as lying in the transformation of the basis of the Ukrainian economy from command and control to market principles. In Ukraine, market principles continue to gain official endorsement by various government bodies, despite increasingly apparent hesitation at the Soviet All-Union level. The economic transformation of a socialist economic system is a massive and unprecedented task, carrying with it unforeseeable risks of social, economic, and political instability. The position of the USSR as a nuclear superpower in the current world order highlights the significance of such a transition.