Command Economy
“ ”You can force poor beggars in factories to produce more products, but a farmer can't force the land to produce. He can't preach to the weather so that it rains at the right time. And in the whole of the sun has never been known for as much as one day to listen to the economics of the late. —Leonard Wibberley, The Mouse that Roared A command economy (also known as a planned economy) refers to an model in which a central authority coerces at gunpoint informs farms, factories, schools and companies: • Which and how many goods, services and professionals to produce • Where to distribute these and who may partake • Deciding their set price and value semi-arbitrarily (e.g. 'by decree') In order for these processes to even be doable on a national scale, far-reaching central control is needed — typically, featuring the total control of industry, education and labour, alongside invention of the internal machinations required to ensure top-down compliance from every individual cog in the machine person in the system. This, in stark contrast to the spectrum of demand economies (also known as economies), in which each individual is theoretically — free to name his or her own terms when it comes to production and trade.
“ ”Planning is not equivalent to 'perfect' allocation of resources, nor 'scientific' allocation, nor even ‘more humane’ allocation. It simply means ‘direct’ allocation, ex ante. As such, it is the opposite of market allocation, which is ex post. —Ernest Mandel, In Defence of Socialist Planning The command economy model is best known for two things: • Being attempted by a number of regimes during the 20th century • Generally blowing up in their faces before too long In this capacity, the command model has repeatedly been the subject of heavy criticism from all sides of the political spectrum (with the exception of, on both sides of the ). The Inner Game Of Chess Pdf File.
Criticize it mainly for gutting and, while typically protest that the centralized hierarchy inherent to command economies not only goes against 's original vision of 'stateless communism', but also clashes powerfully with a range of cherished socialist ideals. People and institutions ranging across the political spectrum have expressed vehement skepticism towards the -reeking concept of overtly signing away all functions of economic self-determination to. Vinson Particles Serial Podcast. Outside the context of acute periods of war, the command economy model has never been promoted by mainstream economists outside of totalitarian dictatorships, it having achieved a certain 'general recognition' for being woefully inefficient — to the point of being counterproductive — in the management of any peacetime economy. Rather, current disputes in macroeconomics lie widely between and (i.e. Popcase Tumblr Theme Download. , of a 'mixed economy' ) — a discussion far removed from the fantastical realm of 'great leaps' and 'five-year plans'. Historically, two major countries to feature command economies were and the, respectively.
While demonstrably capable of garnering results in the short term — a feature held in common with a number of non-command economies — both experiments were ultimately wrought with the loss of social mobility, wild fluctuations in the availability of goods and services, the formation of black markets utterly dwarfing their western 'Prohibition era' counterparts, state-sponsored pseudoscience, famines (both and otherwise), unprecedented environmental devastation, unchecked human error and general ideological insanity. By the late 1970's, sheer necessity increasingly drove both nations to overhaul their respective economies. While the former, China, is, its economy has diverged dramatically from the introverted ' implied by the old ideals (instead, ). The latter, Soviet Union, no longer exists — in part, as a result of its much more 'ideologically pure' command economy going completely haywire on them for that reason. Exemplifying the fallacy, more than a decade of continuous 'life support' proved inconsequential in compensating for the systemic flaws endemic to command economies. Examples [ ] Historical examples of command economies [ ] • The Soviet Union (USSR), and its many, before the collapse.