Poland's Jump to the Market Economy:

...ly as possible...

...Prejean's reactions, her pain and amwith residents of New Orleans housing to meet with the families of homicide vic- bivalence, are more easily understood projects to advising inmates on Louisi- tims, eventually forming a counseling and identified with-she becomes the ana's death row, to counseling crime vic- group for them...

...Prejean works not only with these men but with many of the more colorful figures in DEAD MAN WALKING Prejean first met a man on Louisiana's Louisiana politics, death penalty litigation, Helen Prejean, C.S.J...

...Moreover, Sachs addresses in turn "Practical men," Keynes wrote, Timothy A. Byrnes each of the painful effects of shock ther"who believe themselves to be quite ex- apy, and argues in each case that the pain empt from any intellectual influences, is not nearly as bad as the press, and are usually the slaves of some defunct Prices rose 80 percent in just two weeks, grousing Poles by the way, would have economist...

...Yet she problems are political rather than eco- subsidies to inefficient public industries is the main character of Dead Man nomic...

...ordinary person, someone who has not tims' families...

...ital punishment...

...the situation selor...

...Dead Man Walking is family in segregated States and to obtain legal assistance for not only a description of Prejean's work, 1950s' Baton Rouge, indigent prisoners under sentence of it is also a meditation on the nature of capHelen Prejean joined the Convent of death...

...BOOKS One leap forward, one step back John Maynard Keynes once POLAND'S JUMP TO THE MARKET ECONOMY Sachs argues, and the best way to get rid wrote that the ideas of econ- Jeffrey Sachs of a bad thing is to get rid of it as quickomists are more powerful than The MIT Press, $19.95, 122 pp...

...The basic idea behind the plan was years...

...She is not ing for me to see the degree to which is out of the question...

...Communism of shock therapy, the recent national elec- herself a disservice, for throughout her is disparaged for its obvious failures, and tion in Poland ought to suggest just how book she displays courage and honesty...

...ately...

...for its connection with Russian domina- fragile that trust is...

...Now workers may have less steadfastly optimistic vision of Poland's thousands and thousands of private en- money, but they have a staggering varieconomic future...

...But he counters that this 30 perHe is young, healthy, and the Galen L. to coax goods to the shelves through more cent drop was from an artificially high Stone professor of international trade at realistic prices and to encourage en- wage plateau created by a crippled Harvard University...

...And now over to our economics editor...

...The experience led her to organize spective of Dead Man Walking has its adbringing in an upper- efforts to educate the public about the re- vantages...

...In the case of the practical and many inefficient and bloated public you believe...

...People may have diffiSaint Joseph of Medaille, where, until As the spiritual adviser to death-row in- culty envisioning themselves or someone 1980, she led a comparatively sheltered mates, Prejean was troubled by her in- close to them as the victim of a homicide existence as a teacher and novice coun- ability to comfort their victims' families...

...and witnessing his death in the electric To be sure, the sometimes narrow perfter a protected up- chair...

...its demise with generous, but ultimatePoland's breathtaking leap away from its Sachs, writing three years after the shock, ly futile, wage hikes...

...omy as a whole, translate into very real Commonweal 19 November 1993: 29 suffering for many, many Poles right now, naturally for many Poles...

...At the mo- Prejean's distress in the days before Pat little but tyranny and foreign occupation ment, the practical men and women of Sonnier's execution: of her need to take for two centuries, are being asked to trust Poland are less the slaves of economists sleeping pills, her fear as the date aptheir leaders and trust in the future...

...Command economies are bad, were plummeting...

...The wage hikes command economy in 1990...

...privatization, or the dramatic adjustment that will lead in transfer of assets from public entities to time to a revival of Poland's dismal serprivate individuals...

...But capitalism has turned out to be Democratic Left Alliance, the so-called identify a problem with Dead Man a system in which some people get tremen- post-Communists, has brought into bold Walking...

...The plan had five com- not nearly the catastrophe it appears to ponents: macroeconomic stabilization be...

...A return to a command economy herself one of those people...

...Yet they are all Random House, $21, 278 pp...

...Sachs points to higher per capinomic advisor to Leszek Balcerowicz, the market has been a tremendous success ta consumption of meat over the last three deputy prime minister of Poland's first that should serve as model and encour- years as evidence of an actual rise in livnon-Communist government...

...is commonly understood...

...Yes, he concedes, wages men and women of Poland, however, firms stumbled and fell almost immedi- have dropped over 30 percent in three their economist is anything but defunct...

...She became Sonnier's spiritual the only person portrayed with any real adviser, visiting him during his last weeks, depth or complexity...

...nary person [who] gets involved in exand into an unsettling sense of insecurity In fact, for Sachs and other devotees traordinary events...

...Many people have reacted does wonderful work advising and adpersonal catastrophe could be just around to their current distress by recalling the se- vocating for those most directly affectthe corner...

...and the aggressive pursuit of inter- do not), one is nevertheless struck by the national financial support to help the plan degree to which Sachs's analysis is focused work...

...social safety net" to ameliorate the un- Even if one accepts Sachs's arguments avoidable suffering associated with the and statistics (and a great many economists plan...

...He were futile, Sachs argues, because workJump to the Market Economy is Sachs's reports how, after initial hesitations, ers had no worthwhile goods to buy with passionate defense of that leap and his goods flooded into the shops, and how their money...

...Most death row inmates are compelling and vivid characters...

...with Elmo "Pat" Sonnier, who was fac- only shadows on the page, figures to ing execution for the murder of two teen- whom Prejean reacts...

...econom- Polish economy with their single-mindic liberalization through the end of cen- ed pursuit of industry, and the sharp detral planning and the institution of free cline is, according to Sachs's scheme, a trading practices...

...As such, agement for tentative leaders in Russia and ing standards at the same time that wages Sachs played a central role in devising the elsewhere...

...the construction of a vice sector...

...Dead Man Walking is an account After one family expressed their hurt that is too alien and extreme to invite empaof her subsequent journey from working she did not visit with them, Prejean began thy...

...She may be doing for the population as a whole...

...When meeting with victims' families, the focus is on Prejean's ambivalence about consoling the murderers, her fear of confronting the NO PEACE IN VENGEANCE families, her inability to absorb the families' pain...

...Judging from her book, she along, hoping for the best, but aware that ile democracy...

...Jeffrey Sachs was the trepreneurship by withdrawing structural Communist government trying to avert guiding force behind "shock therapy," advantages enjoyed by public concerns...

...El road after the execution...

...Prejean is necessarily an almost dously rich, some people get frightening- relief the terrible stress that radical eco- peripheral character in many of the events ly poor, and the great middle muddles nomic reform has placed on Poland's frag- she describes...

...But larger old-age under sentence of death, nor has she sufSachs recognizes that Poland's current pensions, slower privatization, and greater fered the murder of a loved one...

...Shock therapy" was set in mo- will be the certain results of the popula- Walking, not simply as its narrator, but tion by economic theory, but its long-term tion's rejection at the polls of radical re- as the person most affected by the comsuccess depends on the enduring politi- form...

...The success of the But her modest self-description does tion...

...On the first day els, elimination of government subsidies, of January 1990, prices were destabilized, and sharply higher prices, regardless of public subsidies were slashed, and Poland their long-term effects on the Polish econentered a new and very uncertain world...

...Quite than they are the servants of an impatient proaches, her vomiting by the side of the, understandably, this trust does not come and deeply worried public...

...For Sachs, Poland's jump to do have...

...on the macroeconomic level...

...curities and assurances of the previous ed by the death penalty, but she is not As a political scientist, it was refresh- system...

...Similarly, Sachs ar"Balcerowicz Plan," the set of radical gues that the 30 percent drop in induseconomic reforms implemented on trial production that has beset Poland is January 1, 1990...

...Poland's is very enthusiastic about the results...

...terprises sprang up in a very short peri- ety of goods to buy with what money they Professor Sachs was the leading eco- od of time...

...As reality over economic theory, and, as such, rounding the death penalty...

...Prejean is not preaching only A% middle-class Catholic alities of the death penalty in the United to the converted...

...Prejean describes herself as "an ordi- perhaps thought deeply about capital pun30: 19 November 1993 Commonweal...

...death row when she agreed to correspond and the Catholic church...

...or as a condemned prisoner...

...These events are a victory of political plex quandaries and the simple pain surcal support of a "shocked" population...

...Sachs correctly points out, the Polish a clear warning signal to economic re- For example, we primarily learn of people, a people who have experienced formers throughout the region...

...Prejean is virtually Hilary Hochman agers...

...Sharp deIt is easy to see why this plan was clines in production and employment levdubbed "shock therapy...

...The Communists had distorted the through tighter credit policies...