ABSTRACT
The defining strategy of the march to capitalism in the transition countries is privatization, the change from state-ownership to private ownership, or at least achieving major, irreversible steps in that direction. All the other strategies, the freeing of prices and currency, the curbing of state expenditures to match income, the reduction of subsidies to industry and individuals, and the turn to international trade, all these pale by comparison. Without privatization there is no change in system, no transition.
