Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Tue, 3 Nov 1998 11:52:02 -0800 (PST)
CivilSoc subscribers with Web access are invited to visit the Center for
Civil Society International Web site, where we have recently posted a
number of timely job and grant announcements, as well as an extensive
update on the Serendipity Project, based in Vladimir. That update includes
information on Serendipity opportunities to teach English or learn Russian
in Vladimir, as well as an intriguing essay by Serendipity founder and
CEO, Dr. Ron Pope, titled "What Is To Be Done?"
Here is a brief excerpt from that essay:
"If we are going to effectively help Russia, more emphasis--a lot more
emphasis--needs to be put on what's working in Russia, and by implication,
what can be done to help improve the situation...A very strong argument
can be made that hope for the Russian economy lies primarily with small
and medium enterprises, not with the hold-overs from the Soviet system.
The large firms, for the most part, are too stuck in the past to be
successfully 'restructured.' Both managers and workers want to cling to
practices that simply can't be made to work effectively in even a
semi-competitive economy. These practices include depending on state
subsidies, 'top down management,' the 'guaranteeing of jobs' no matter how
poorly the work is done or how overstaffed the enterprise is, and lack of
attention to efficiency and quality."
Dr. Pope's essay, while not intended as a response or rebuttal to the
Sept/Oct Foreign Affairs essay by Gaddy and Ickes (correctly) blasting
"Russia's Virtual Economy," provides important balance to that analysis,
which assumed that the great majority of Russians work either for
unrestructured large firms, hold-overs from the Soviet system, or for
government.
A link to this essay will be found on the home page of our Web site at:
www.friends-partners.org/~ccsi
Holt Ruffin
Center for Civil Society International
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