Reviews 695

Any serious study of political developments in the post-communist Eastern Europe and Soviet Union needs to have complete information about existing parties operating in each country. This information is now available in a book edited by Bogdan Szajkowski, entitled New Political Parties of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The use of “Soviet Union” in the title of the book, which was finished in October 199 1, underscores the speed with which changes are taking place in the post-communist world. It also reminds the reader that no list of parties in this part of the world will be static for any length of time, as many of them will go out of existence, while new ones will be formed. It is expected that over time, and with the help of elections, the numbers will stabilize, but that was not the situation in 199 I.

The book has eight cont~butors and consists of 12 chapters. In the introduction, the editor states that “in the overwhelming number of cases, the contributors to this volume have been able to obtain a com- plete set ofdata on history, membership, structure and affiliation and behaviour” (p. IX) for the parties of each country. However, no indication is given anywhere in the book about how the data were obtained. The preface acknowledges several publications that were useful, such as the RFE/RL report on Eastern Europe, the Keesings Record of World Even& and others, but it does not indicate the extent to which the information relies solely on these publications, and whether other sources, such as govern- ment ministries were used. In addition, the affiliations and credentials of the contributors are not pro- vided. These two impo~ant omissions are offset by the quality of the chapters, their organization, and the impression of comprehensiveness that each chapter gives.

Each chapter covers a separate Eastern European country, ranging from Albania to Yugoslavia. In addition, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union are also covered by individual chapters. Chapters begin with a narrative introduction describing the political situation in the country under dis- cussion, from pre-communist days to the present. ‘The introductions are followed by lists of parties active in each country. Complete information about each party includes the name of the party, the address, the phone number, foundation date, names of leaders, a history of the party, the party’s orga- nization, its party program, and its affiliations. Not all entries are complete, as many parties were reluc- tant to make public all pertinent information. This reluctance is understandabIe in light of the long tradition of oppression that has existed in the communist bloc. It could also signify that full political freedom has not yet been achieved and that some parties are still operating under adverse conditions. No explanation is given by the authors as to why in some cases the information is incomplete. Overall, however, the major parties are covered in depth and it is only the smaller, less prominent parties that have incomplete information.

A detailed index and a list of abbreviations of party names, which includes each party’s name in both the vernacular and in English, complement an already informative book. As an illustration of the mag- nitude of the information covered in the book, the list of party abbreviations alone covers I 1 pages. The detailed chapter introductions and extensive lists give the readera comprehensive picture ofthe political situation that existed in the Eastern European countries by the middle of 199 1. The speed of events in that part of the world undoubtedly necessitates the updating of any list of political parties, since no list will stay current for long. However, the historical value of this comprehensive book, which provides a snapshot of the situation at a specific time in history, cannot be overestimated. Future editions will be welcome. Bogdan Szajkowski’s book belongs in the collection of every serious scholar of Eastern Euro- pean and post-Soviet politics.

SEVER BORDEIANU General Library

University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87 13 1

USA

In Search of Flexibility: The New Soviet Labour Market. Edited by Guy Standing. Geneva: Interna- tional Labour Office, 199 1. 440~. ISBN 92-2-107744-6 (pbk.). Distributed by Unipub, order no. lL-07446. $36.00.

The reforms set in motion by M. G. Gorbachev in 1985 put the Soviet Union on a new course towards a market economy. This presented the country with an array ofsocial and economic issues not acknowl- edged before. The fact that the Soviet Union had operated for almost 75 years ignoring market forces produced managers and leaders inexperienced in creating the policies needed to facilitate the transition.

696 Reviews

In 1989 the employment structure in the USSR showed one out of five workers involved in agriculture, the near absence of a financial sector, and a very small retail and wholesale trade sector (p. 4-5). Another feature of the Soviet system was overemployment in State enterprises. This occurred because the key instrument for providing social protection was a formal job guarantee written into the Constitution. Unemployment was not legally recognized, there was no safety net for workers such as unemployment benefits, and there were few public employment services. The need to restructure industry, convert mil- itary expenditures to other forms of production, to decentralize the state apparatus, and to raise pro- ductivity in all parts of the economy was a top priority for the administration.

In 1989 the Employment and Development Department of the International Labour Organization and the USSR State Committee for Labour and Social Affairs began a collaborative work program to clarify the institutional requirements for the transition to a regulated labor market (p. 6). One part of that program was a conference sponsored by the two agencies entitled “ILO/USSR International Con- ference: Towards Labour Flexibility and Employment Reform in the USSR,” held l-4 October 1990 in Moscow. This book is a result of that conference.

The objectives of the conference were to “take stock of current thinking within the USSR, to review the statistical picture of ongoing developments and to identify alternative labour market policies based on international experience” (p. 6). There were 158 participants including leading Soviet labor special- ists, such as the Minister and Deputy Minister of Labor, senior officials of the USSR and the Union Republics State Committees for Labor and Social Affairs, Gosplan (the USSR State Planning Agency). Goskomstat (the USSR State Committee on Statistics). managers of Soviet industrial enterprises, the trade unions, and academic economists, as well as a few foreign labor economists and a team from the ILO. A list of participants is included as Annex 1.

The I9 chapters of the book are based on the main technical papers presented at the conference. The editor, who is Coordinator for the Labour Market Research Unit, ILO. provides an introductory essay describing the background to the conference and the economic and social context for the issues dis- cussed. Like most conference proceedings there is no index. A list of the periodicals and statistical pub- lications referred to in the text is provided. A note indicates that the place names are those used in I988 and are based on English spelling.

Of special importance to conference goers was the 36-article draft law “Fundamentals of Employ- ment Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics, 199 I ,” which is reproduced in Annex II. The law attempts to set out the principles of the emerging labor market. Four of the presenters were directly involved with the formulation of the law and discuss aspects of the legislation (chapters 2-3 and 5-6). Other papers allude to issues dealt with in the law. The draft law reappraises the “right to work” in contrast to the previous “duty to work” concept. recognizes unemployment as legitimate for the first time since the 1920s deals with unemployment benefits. and considers the state’s employment obli- gations and the policies needed to promote employment. The draft law was adopted by the Supreme Soviet in January 199 1 and versions of it were subsequently adopted by some of the republics.

Other themes discussed by the participants were labor mobility (chapters 4 and 8) and the concom- itant issue of training (chapter 16). income distribution, wage differentials, and wage determination (chapters 9-l I), the implications for the labor market of the emerging non-state forms of economic activity, especially the cooperatives, which were legalized in 1988 (chapters 14-15) and the need to create a network of active labor market policies (chapters 17- 18). The future role of trade unions was also a concern (chapters 12- 13). The labor market problems in the republics were discussed along with a report on the results of an IL0 questionnaire distributed prior to the conference to the senior labor specialists in each of the 15 republics (chapter 7). A critique of labor statistics in the USSR is presented. There is also a discussion on the need for reliable information if more effective labor policies are to be constructed (chapter 19).

Any book with the word Soviet in the title is commonly judged to be out of date. However, the issues discussed at the conference remain critical to the separate republics as they struggle to create the nec- essary legislative instruments for decentralizing their economic system. Indeed, the enormity of the issues concerning the participants at the conference are highlighted by statistics regarding the state of the Soviet economy in 199 1 and projections for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for 1992. In February 1992 the Goskomstat issued what may have been its last report. It states that the Soviet GNP fell by I7 percent in 199 1 (a fall of I4 percent was experienced by the United States in I932 during the Great Depression), the consumer price index rose by an estimated 96 percent, and wholesale industrial prices rose by 240 percent [ 11. State-run employment agencies reported more than four mil- lion people had registered as looking for work at the end of December 199 1 [2]. And an IL0 report released in March 1992 projects that unemployment for the CIS in 1992 may reach 15 million workers

Reviews 697

while another 30 million may be reduced to marginal work out of a workforce of 136 million [3]. The same report states that 80 percent of the population is living below a poverty level set at 2,000 rubles a month, or about $20 at unofficial exchange rates.

These statistics, though of questionable reliability because of the disarray in the reporting mecha- nisms, indicate the severe economic disruption in the CIS and place the conference issues at a seemingly abstract level. Yet the thrust ofthe conference was to evaluate new policies, procedures. and labor mar- ket instruments to maneuver Soviet society into a more pluralistic and market-oriented economy. Cer- tainly for each of the republics the issues still exist although the problems may vary in degree.

NOTES

I. Keith Bush. “The Disastrous Last Year of the USSR,” RFE/RL Reseurch Report I (March 1992):39-41, 2. “State-run Employee Agencies Received 4. I42 mil Applications in I99 I ,” Ekonomiko i Zhix I9 ( I99 I ): 12. 3. Norman Kempster. “Agency Predicts Russian Unemployment of 15%” Los An,q&s Tirncj.7. 3 I March 1992,

Home edition, pt.A. p. 8.

MARY E. JOHNSON Parish Library

University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87 13 I

USA

Developments in International Labour Statistics. Edited by Ralph Turvey. London: Pinter Publishers, 1990. $52.50.

In an ever more interdependent world, international data that permit comparisons of the perfor- mance of national economies have become more important for scholars, journalists, and businesses. Industrial countries need such data to decide how to allocate the locomotive or lead responsibility to pull the international economy out of recession. and developing nations need such data to assess their own performance over time and in comparison with similar nations. Employment and related labor market data are the best measures of how the economy is affecting the average worker. However, defi- nitions of labor market indicators differ across countries, as do systems for collecting and reporting data, so that casual comparisons can mislead rather than inform.

The IL0 is the oldest surviving United Nations agency, and it has done an admirable job helping to develop standardized labor statistics. The 29 papers included in this volume are mostly reprinted from various 1980s issues of the ILO’s Bulletin ~$Lubour Statistics. The papers are arranged in six parts: conference highlights, labor accounting, or how to get a GNP-type look at a nation’s workforce; employ- ment and unemployment; occupational classification issues; wages and productivity; and miscellaneous topics such as inequality and public sector employees. Editor Turvey was the ILO’s chief statistician, and his purpose for assembling these papers was to make more accessible some of the ILO’s labor sta- tistics research and publications.

This book will primarily interest persons concerned with the details of international labor data. Most publications of such data, such as the ILO’s annual Yearbook QfLabour Statistics, include at least short explanations of the definitions and procedures used to generate the data and warnings about compar- ability. Most comparative analyses avoid dealing with the issues raised in Turvey’s book by using data from an organization that has already been standardized, such as the ILO’s Yeurbook ~f‘lubow Statis- tics, OECD data on 24 industrial countries, or World Bank data on most ofthe world’s countries. How- ever, for readers interested in how the employment and wage concepts are defined and standardized, this book provides a wealth of useful information.

The papers in this book will serve as useful references for readers who want to go beyond published IL0 data. The IL0 does not collect data; it provides advice on how to collect data and then publishes the data it receives from member nations. For example, the ILO’s Yearbook includes population and labor force data for 184 countries, including the age structure of the population and the labor force (economically active population) distributed by industry and occupation.