Based on firsthand, in-depth, empirical research conducted by Dr. Rupp in his native Hungary, this book is a causal analysis of the striking economic success of private manufacturing enterprises, and of the conditions conducive to administrative support for such ideologically disrespectable entrepreneurial organizations.

This study arrives at some original and surprising conclusions for the success of private business enterprises in the Soviet-type economy while providing valuable information on the second economy of Communist countries, the issue of economic reforms, the current crisis of East European economies, and the prospects and limitations of structural reform in this troubled region.