By examining a sector of the economy that was exposed to increased imports more than four decades ago, Crumley illuminates the economic pressures, resistance, and reform that help to shape Russia's agrarian sector today.

Introduction: setting the table -- Governance, or, How to solve the grain problem? -- Production -- Consumption, or, The Perestroika of the quotidian -- Nature -- Conclusion: vulnerabilities.

When they found their efforts had produced negligible results, they tried to introduce new institutions such as a free press, a legislature with real power, the rule of law, and truly competitive elections.

This is a comprehensive study of China's economic reforms, from their beginnings at the end of 1978 through the completion of many of the initial reform measures during 1993. The features of Chinese reform that differ from the former USSR are highlighted.

For half a century the Soviet economy was inefficient but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China? Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.

The development of China's grain marketing system is a crucial part of economic reform. The focus of this book is on the development of the domestic marketing system. Issues examined include the pace and content of reform so far, the development of wholesale markets, and the growth of a complementary financial system. Of special interest is the impact of marketing reform on regional trade patterns in the domestic market and implications for China's international grain trade policy.

Have neoliberal policies truly yielded beneficial effects for India? ‘Two Decades of Market Reform in India’ presents a collection of essays that challenge the conventional wisdom of Indian market reforms, examining the effects of neoliberal policies enacted by the Indian government and exploding the myths that surround them. In particular, the volume questions the perceived benefits of India’s reform policies in the areas of growth, agriculture, industry and poverty alleviation, and examines how the government’s focus on preventing a fiscal deficit caused a large-scale decline in development expenditures, which in turn has had a negative impact on the well-being of the poor. With its rich and insightful analysis, ‘Two Decades of Market Reform in India’ bravely shines a light on the true implications of India’s neoliberal governmental policies, and provides a revealing indication of how policy reform since 1991 has, at times, detrimentally affected the general populace of India.

This theoretical and empirical study of market-oriented reforms in Chinese industry since the late 1970s focuses on the expansion of the market mechanism in the allocation of industrial products and the concurrent decline of directive planning - a strategy that is a crucial component of the ambitious overall reform "package" that Chinese reformers are trying to implement. The expanding role of Chinese industrial goods has had major implications for the functioning and importance of planning which, the author argues, has become largely irrelevant in terms of direct control over short-term allocation.

China's economy continues to grow rapidly, with important consequences for its own society and environment, as well as for the wider world economy. This book provides much-needed insight, using the latest research findings, into China’s successful reform experience and its challenges over three decades.