34the crisis of east german communism
table 1.Selected Indicators of Development in Socialist and Nonsocialist States
Country
Per capita
GNP in
US$, 1987
Energy use
per capita
in kg of
coal
(equiv.),
1987
Telephone
sets per
100 pop.,
1987
Television
sets in use
per 1,000
pop., 1987
Infant
mortality
per 1,000
live births,
1989
Life
expectancy
at birth,
1989
Socialist states GDR 11,860 7,276 23 754 10 72.8
ˇCSSR 9,709 6,364 24.6 285 13 71.7
Hungary 8,260 3,819 15.2 402 20 69.1
Poland 6,879 4,935 12.2 263 21 70.2
USSR 8,662 5,549 11.3 314 25 69.2
China
(PRC)
340 776 0.9 2.4 32 NA
Nonsocialist states
FRG 18,450 5,264 65 385 5 75.9
USA 18,570 9,542 76 811 11 75.4
Source: United Nations, Comparative International Statistics, 1989.
pared quite favorably with those of other socialist countries and, at least in
terms of social indicators, placed the country just behind much wealthier
capitalist states. (See table 1.) However, even as the GDR made strides toward
emulating the information revolution and developing new microelectronic
technologies, it was fast becoming the buckle of what Daniel Chirot (1991)
has called a ‘‘socialist rust belt’’ of highly polluting industries, wasteful en-
ergy policies, and inadequate capital investment.
The economic fate of the GDR was largely tied to the fortunes of the
Soviet bloc. Closely emulating the Soviet model, the GDR stressed bureau-
cratic planning, heavy industry, intensive exploitation of natural resources,
and mass distribution of basic consumer goods (Kuhrt et al. 1996; Dennis
1993; Kornai 1991; Brus 1986; Kaser 1986). Early on, these policies seemed to
bear fruit. Through about 1970, the growth rate in per capita national in-
come in the GDR kept pace with West Germany’s (sb 1988; sjddr 1988). Yet
by the late 1980s stagnation became evident. Heavy industries were well
suited to Soviet-style planning and control mechanisms, less so the new
flexible and service-intensive industries. As Charles Maier (1997) has point-