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Market socialism

 
Political Dictionary: market socialism
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The doctrine that socialism can and should be achieved without a massive state apparatus. Market socialists believe that while capital can and should be owned cooperatively, or in some cases by the state, decisions about production and exchange should be left to market forces and not planned centrally. Market socialism is intertwined with industrial democracy because the most difficult practical questions often turn out to be: If capital is cooperatively owned, who decides how to dispose of it? And do cooperators get one vote each, or votes in proportion to the capital they have contributed? Robert Nozick has argued (in Anarchy, State and Utopia) that the comparative scarcity of producer cooperatives shows that people have freely chosen to live under capitalism instead. Market socialists such as D. L. Miller have denied this, arguing that a capitalist economy is structurally biased against market socialist enterprises.

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Russian History Encyclopedia: Market Socialism
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Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > Russian History Encyclopedia

The economic doctrine of market socialism holds that central planners can make active and efficient use of "the market" as a mechanism for implementing socially desired goals, which are developed and elaborated through central planning of economic activity. Focusing on the elimination of private property and wealth, and on the central determination and control of all investment and development decisions, it posits that the planned determination and adjustment of producers' and asset prices could allow markets to implement the desired allocations in a decentralized manner without sacrificing central or social control over outcomes or incomes. Thus egalitarian social outcomes and dynamic economic growth can be achieved simultaneously, without the disruptions and suffering imposed by poorly coordinated private investment decisions resulting in a wasteful business cycle.

The idea of market socialism arose from the realization that classical socialism, involving the collective provision and distribution of goods and services in natural form, without the social contrivances of property, markets, and prices, was not feasible, since rational collective control of economic activity requires calculations that cannot rely consistently on "natural unit" variables such as energy or labor amounts. It also became clear that the existing computing capabilities were inadequate for deriving a consistent economic plan from a general equilibrium problem. This led, in the Socialist Calculation Debate of the 1930s, to the suggestion (most notably by Oskar Lange) that a Socialist regime, assuming ownership of all means of production, could use markets to find relevant consumers' prices and valuations while maintaining social and state control over production, income determination, investment, and economic development. Managers would be instructed to minimize costs, while the planning board would adjust producers' prices to eliminate disequilibria in the markets for final goods. Thus, at a socialist market equilibrium, the classical marginal conditions of static efficiency would be maintained, while the State would ensure equitable distribution of incomes through its allocation of the surplus (profit) from efficient production and investment in socially desirable planned development.

Another version of market socialism arose as a result of the reform experiences in east-central Europe, particularly the labor-managed economic system of Yugoslavia that developed following Marshal Tito's break with Josef Stalin in 1950. This gave rise to a large body of literature on the "Illyrian Firm" with decentralized, democratic control of production by workers' collectives in a market economy subject to substantial macroeconomic planning and income redistribution through taxation and subsidies. The economic reforms in Hungary (1968), Poland (1981), China after 1978, and Gorbachev's Russia (1987 - 1991) involved varying degrees of decentralization of State Socialism and its administrative command economy, providing partial approximations to the classical market socialist model of Oskar Lange. This experience highlighted the difficulties of planning for and controlling decentralized markets, and revealed the failure of market socialism to provide incentives for managers to follow the rules necessary for economic efficiency. Faced with these circumstances, proponents of market socialism moved beyond state ownership and control of property to various forms of economic democracy and collective property, accepting the necessity of real markets and market prices but maintaining the classical socialist rejection of fully private productive property. The early debates on market socialism are best seen in Friedrich A. von Hayek (1935), while the current state of the debate is presented in Pranab Bardhan and John E. Roemer (1993).

Bibliography

Bardhan, Pranab, and Roemer, John E., eds. (1993). Market Socialism: The Current Debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Granick, David. (1975). Enterprise Guidance in Eastern Europe: A Comparison of Four Socialist Economies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Hayek, Friedrich A. von, ed. (1935). Collectivist Economic Planning: Critical Studies on the Possibilities of Socialism. London: Routledge.

Kornai, János. (1992). The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Lange, Oskar, and Taylor, Fred M. (1948). On the Economic Theory of Socialism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

—RICHARD ERICSON

Wikipedia: Market socialism
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For the libertarian socialist proposals sometimes described as "market socialism", see mutualism (economic theory).
For the economic system in People's Republic of China, see socialist market economy.
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Market socialism refers to various economic systems where the means of production are publicly owned, but the market is utilized.[1] In a traditional market socialist economy, prices would be determined by a government planning ministry, and enterprises would either be state-owned or cooperatively-owned and managed by their employees. Within this model, the commonly owned enterprises are free from excessive planning, with decision-making on what to produce being left to the management of individual enterprises, allowing them to function more autonomously in a more decentralized fashion than in other socialist economic systems.

Contents

Theoretical history

The earliest models of this form of market socialism were developed by Enrico Barone (1908)[2][3] and Oskar R. Lange (c. 1936).[4] Lange and Fred M. Taylor[5] proposed that central planning boards set prices through "trial and error," making adjustments as shortages and surpluses occurred rather than relying on a free price mechanism. If there were shortages, prices would be raised; if there were surpluses, prices would be lowered.[6] Raising the prices would encourage businesses to increase production, driven by their desire to increase their profits, and in doing so eliminate the shortage. Lowering the prices would encourage businesses to curtail production in order to prevent losses, which would eliminate the surplus. Therefore, it would be a simulation of the market mechanism, which Lange thought would be capable of effectively managing supply and demand.[7]

A second form of market socialism has been termed "free market socialism" because it does not involve planners.[8][9] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon developed a theoretical system called mutualism, which attacks the legitimacy of existing property rights, subsidies, corporations, banking, and rent. Proudhon envisioned a decentralized market where people would enter the market with equal power, negating wage slavery.[10] Proponents believe that cooperatives, credit unions, and other forms of worker ownership will become viable without being subject to the state. Market socialism has also been used to describe some individualist anarchist works[11] which argue that free markets help workers and weaken capitalists.

HD Dickinson published two articles proposing a form of market socialism: Price Formation in a Socialist Community (The Economic Journal 1933) and The Problems of a Socialist Economy (The Economic Journal 1934). Dickinson proposed a mathematical solution whereby the problems of a socialist economy could be solved by a central planning agency. The central agency would have the necessary statistics on the economy, as well as the capability of using statistics to direct production. The economy could be represented as a system of equations. Solution values for these equations could be used to price all goods at marginal cost and direct production. Hayek (1935) argued against the proposal to simulate markets with equations. Dickinson (1939) adopted the Lange-Taylor proposal to simulate markets through trial and error.

The Lange-Dickinson version of market socialism kept capital investment out of the market. Lange (1926 p65) insisted that a central planning board would have to set capital accumulation rates arbitrarily. Lange and Dickinson saw potential problems with bureaucratization in market socialism. According to Dickinson “the attempt to check irresponsibility will tie up managers of socialist enterprises with so much red tape and bureaucratic regulation that they will lose all initiative and independence" Dickinson 1938 p214). In the Economics of Control (1944) Abba Lerner admitted that capital investment would be politicized in market socialism.

Although the name is similar, it markedly differs from the socialist market economy and Socialist-oriented market economy, which is practiced within the People's Republic of China and Socialist Republic of Vietnam, respectively.

Proponents of market socialism argue that it combines the advantages of a market economy with those of socialist economics. Economist John Roemer (who developed 'Coupon Socialism') and philosopher David Schweickart, whose version of market socialism is called "Economic Democracy," are two separate advocates of socialist market.

Bardham and Roemer suggested a form of Market Socialism where there was a 'stockmarket' that distributed capital fairly between the workers. In this stockmarket, there is no buying or selling of stocks, which leads to negative externalities associated with a concentration of capital ownership. The Bardham and Roemer model satisfied the main requirements of both Socialism (workers own all the factors of production - not just labour) and market economies (prices determine efficient allocation of resources). A New Zealand Economist, Steven O'Donnell, expanded on the Bardham and Roemer model and decomposed the capital function in a general equilibrium system to take account of entrepreneurial activity in market socialist economies. O'Donnell (2003) set up a model that could be used as a blueprint for transition economies, and the results suggested that although market socialist models were inherently unstable in the long term, in the short term they would provide the economic infrastructure necessary for a successful transition from Socialist to market economy.

Theoretical basis

The key theoretical basis for market socialism is the negation of the underlying expropriation of surplus value present in other, exploitative, modes of production. Socialist theories that favored the market date back to the Ricardian socialists, who advocated a free-market combined with state ownership of the means of production.

An important base for the first definition of market socialism in economic theory is the Lange Model, which states that an economy in which all production is performed by the state, but in which there is a functioning price mechanism, has similar properties to a market economy under perfect competition, in that it achieves Pareto efficiency. The internal inconsistency[citation needed] of this theory is troublesome to mainstream economists, however.

Implementation

Peter Drucker described the U.S. system of regulated pension funds providing capital to financial markets as "pension fund socialism".[12] William H. Simon characterized pension fund socialism as "a form of market socialism", concluding that it was promising but perhaps with prospects more limited that those envisioned by its enthusiasts.[13]

Other uses of the term

Market socialism has also been used as a name for any attempt by a Soviet-style economy to introduce market elements into its economic system. In this sense, "market socialism" was first attempted during the 1920s in the Soviet Union as the New Economic Policy (NEP), but soon abandoned. Later, elements of "market socialism" were introduced in Hungary (where it was nicknamed "goulash communism"), Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (see Titoism) in the 1970s and 1980s. Modern Vietnam and Laos also describe themselves as market socialist systems. The Soviet Union attempted to introduce a market socialist system with its perestroika reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Historically, these kinds of "market socialist" systems attempt to retain government ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, such as heavy industry, energy, and infrastructure, while introducing decentralised decision making and giving local managers more freedom to make decisions and respond to market demands. Market socialist systems also allow private ownership and entrepreneurship in the service and other secondary economic sectors. The market is allowed to determine prices for consumer goods and agricultural products, and farmers are allowed to sell all or some of their products on the open market and keep some or all of the profit as an incentive to increase and improve production.

Socialist market economy

The Chinese experience with socialism with Chinese characteristics is frequently referred to as a 'socialist market economy' in which the 'commanding heights' remain in state ownership, but a substantial portion of both the state and private sectors of economy are governed by free market practices, including a stock exchange for trading equity. The free-market is the arbitrator for most economic activity, with economic planning being relegated to macro-economic government indicative planning that does not encompass the microeconomic decision-making that is left to the individual organizations and state-owned enterprises. This model includes a significant amount of privately-owned firms that operate as a business for profit, but only for consumer goods and services.[14] Directive centralized planning composed of mandatory output requirements and production quotas have been displaced by the free-market mechanism (for most of the economy) and directive planning in larger state industries.[15] One of the major changes between the old planned economy and the socialist market model is the corporatization state institutions, with 150 of them reporting directly to the central government.[16] By 2008, these state-owned corporations have became increasingly dynamic and generated lots of revenue for the state[17][18], with the state-sector leading the recovery of economic growth in 2009 in the wake of the financial crises.[19]

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam pursued market-oriented reforms in 1986, resulting in what is officially called a 'Socialist-oriented market economy', a system that utilizes market forces to distribute consumer goods produced by state-run, collectively-owned and privately-owned enterprises.

Proponents of socialist market economic systems argue from a Marxist perspective, stating that a planned socialist economy can only be brought about by first establishing a comprehensive commodity market economy and letting it fully develop until it exhausts its historical stage and gradually transforms itself into a planned economy.[20] They argue that the economic system of the former USSR and its satellite states attempted to go from a natural economy to a planned economy by decree, without passing through the necessary market economy phase of development. Proponents of socialist-directed market economies distinguish themselves from market socialists, and state that market socialists believe that only through utilizing the market mechanism can socialism be achieved, and that planned economies are ineffective or undesirable.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Buchanan, Alan E. Ethics, Efficiency and the Market. Oxford University Press US. 1985. ISBN 978-0847673964, pp. 104-105
  2. ^ F. Caffé (1987), "Barone, Enrico," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, ISBN 978-1561591978, v. 1, p. 195.
  3. ^ Enrico Barone, "Il Ministro della Produzione nello Stato Collettivista", Giornale degli Economisti, 2, pp. 267-293, trans. as "The Ministry of Production in the Collectivist State," in F. A. Hayek, ed. (1935), Collectivist Economic Planning, ISBN 978-0710015068 pp. 245-90.
  4. ^ Robin Hahnel (2005), Economic Justice and Democracy, Routlege, ISBN 978-0415933445, p. 170
  5. ^ Fred M. Taylor (1929). "The Guidance of Production in a Socialist State," American Economic Review, 19(1), pp. 1-8.
  6. ^ Mark Skousen (2001), Making Modern Economics, M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0765604798,pp. 414-415.
  7. ^ János Kornai (1992),The Socialist System: the political economy of communism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198287766, p. 476.
  8. ^ Property and Prophets: the evolution of economic institutions and ideologies, E. K. Hunt, published by M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0765606099, p.72
  9. ^ Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism: "J.S. Mill, Market Socialist"
  10. ^ Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism: Eugene Plawiuk on Anarchist Socialism
  11. ^ Murray Bookchin, Ghost of Anarcho-Syndicalism
    Robert Graham, The General Idea of Proudhon's Revolution)
  12. ^ The unseen revolution: how pension fund socialism came to America, Peter Ferdinand Drucker, Harper Collins, 1976, ISBN 978-0060110970
  13. ^ William H. Simon, "Prospects for Pension Fund Socialism", Corporate control and accountability: changing structures and the dynamics J McCahery, et al., Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN p.167
  14. ^ The Role of Planning in China's Market Economy
  15. ^ The Role of Planning in China's Market Economy
  16. ^ http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/08/china-enterprises-state-lead-cx_jrw_0708mckinsey.html
  17. ^ http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto031620081407384075
  18. ^ http://ufirc.ou.edu/publications/Enterprises%20of%20China.pdf
  19. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8153138.stm
  20. ^ a b Market Economy and Socialist Road Duan Zhongqiao (http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:tWl8XGM_vQAJ:www.nodo50.org/cubasigloXXI/congreso06/conf3_zhonquiao.pdf+Socialist+planned+commodity+economy&hl=en&gl=us)
  • Tadeusz Kowalik (1987). "Lange-Lerner mechanism," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 129-30.
  • Joseph Stiglitz, Whither Socialism, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-19340-X.
  • Bertell Ollman ed. (1998). Market Socialism: the Debate Among Socialists, with other contributions by James Lawler, Hillel Ticktin and David Schewikart. Preview.
  • Steven O'Donnell (2003). Introducing Entrepreneurial Activity Into Market Socialist Models, University Press, Auckland
  • John E. Roemer et al. (E. O. Wright, ed.) (1996). Equal Shares: Making Market Socialism Work, Verso.

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Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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