The decade of the 1990s has opened on a note of major change, with events in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and South Africa moving at an astonishing pace, both on the political and economic fronts. These changes have brought into focus vital issues of political economy, a subject that this collection of essays carefully examines. Written for readers with or without a background in economics, the essays provide a perspective on economic systems, the underlying issues involved in creating an economic constitution, and the choices a society makes in designing an economy. Economists from...