Faculty Scholarship 1994 - Present  Rethinking the Transition to
Capitalism: Taking the Assumption of Sel Interested Behavior
Seriously  While undergoing a transition to capitalism in the
1990s, the Russian economy collapsed. A factor contributing to
the collapse was the shock therapy policy advice of western
experts. These experts, relying on mainstream economic theory,
ignored the unique characteristics of transition periods between
economic systems. A Hobbesian critique of the underlying
assumptions of mainstream economics is offered. We argue that a
Hobbesian approach, focusing on the dynamics of struggles over
the rules of the economic game would be very useful for
understanding the transition to capitalism in Russia. An
important Hobbesian thesis is that attempts to change the rules
of the economic game without a robust state apparatus to enforce
those rules leads not to capitalist prosperity but to the war of
all against all.