PDS on the Berlin Wall - and present walls!

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Aug 16 15:29:20 PDT 2001


At 11:41 PM 8/16/01 +0200, Johannes wrote:
>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>
>> Calling the former GDR a "developing country"
>> is a bit of a stretch. Actually, in 1939 it was probably
>> slightly ahead of the West in per capita income and
>> in its level of industrialization.
>
>Do you have a source for this?

I think Barkley has a point, regardless how we view the issue of war reparations and GDP. Level of development is a function of industrial infrastructure, organization, urbanization, human capital and know-how - and Germany was a leader in all these aspects - as opposed to Russia, which largely emulated the German models (thus being a developing country - see for example Gershenkron's relative backwardness theory of development).
>From that point of view, the imposition of the Soviet-style central
planning, which was for a large part emulation of the late 19th century German cartel organization, was indeed a set-back for E. Germany and, I may add, Czechoslovakia. OTOH, it was a blessing for the backward Poland, whose early attempt of modernization after the 1926 Pisludski's coup was not very successful. IMHO, Poles should elevate central planners and their Soviet sponsors to sainthood for bringing that oasis of backwardness to the European level of development.

In short, the following x-Warsaw bloc countries can be considered developing: Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania, I would also throw in Slovakia even though it was not a separate country until 1992. Of course, x-Soviet republics that gained statehood are also developing, as their "mother" Russia.

Countries that can be considered developed are: Czechoslovakia (esp. Bohemia), and GDR, whereas Hungary was perhaps a borderline case.

wojtek



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