As world capitalism is rapidly moving into the historical stage of a global information society, different countries relate in different ways to the transition. The author argues that instead of following the U.S. ideological lead, the Central-Eastern and Eastern European countries have the alternative of transitioning toward partially privatized systems, modelled on French and Japanese planning, which are much more appropriate to a global information economy. Moving toward such historically progressive systems is all the more essential because these systems may well signal the limits of capitalism.