Socialist market economy

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The socialist market economy or socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics is the official term for the economic system of the People's Republic of China after the reforms of Deng Xiaoping . Other states also refer to their economic system as a socialist market economy, for example the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , after market economy reforms under the name Đổi mới (renewal). The concept of a socialist market economy is also presented generally theoretically.

description

The socialist market economy is a concept that was first constructed by Deng Xiaoping in the course of an integration of the market into a planned economy in the People's Republic of China and which was later repeated in a similar way in Vietnam. After its implementation in China, this economic system complemented the Chinese planned economy and contributed to the high growth rates of the gross domestic product in the last few decades. Within the model, private companies also form an important part of the economic system.

Private sector

Most of China's economic growth is attributed to the private sector, which is growing twice as fast as the overall official growth figures and which is continually growing. However, the size of the private sector is difficult to measure because this sector is often underestimated by official sources when calculating GDP. The statistics tend to ignore small entrepreneurs or not to include private companies as such in the assessment.

In addition, private companies are still often still declared as collective companies by their owners. In addition, the size of private companies is often presented smaller than it actually is. The private sector generated around 70% of GDP in 2005. This number could be even larger given the Chengbao system . Within this system, private entrepreneurs manage such assets or economic entities that are nominally owned by the government. The state retains control over strategic industries.

public sector

In 2005, the market-oriented reforms including privatization were practically halted or in some cases even turned back. In 2006, the Chinese government declared that the defense industry, power generation, oil and petrochemicals, telecommunications, coal mining, aviation and shipping must remain under "absolute state control" and remain legally public property. The state also retains indirect control in directing the non-state economy over the financial system, which lends funds according to state interests.

The state sector is concentrated in the large industries of the economy, while the growing private sector is primarily to be found in the field of goods and consumer goods production and light industry. Centralized planning, which is based on mandatory production quantities and quotas, has been replaced for most of the economy by a free market mechanism and purely indicative planning for the large state industries . This is in contrast to the earlier imperative planning , which made much more precise specifications for the production quantities.

One big difference from the old planned economy is the restructuring of state-owned companies on a commercial basis with the exception of only 150 very large state-owned companies which continue to be managed directly by the central government. Most of them have subsidiaries.

These state-owned companies have a high degree of autonomy, so that they can choose their own CEOs and keep the profits they have generated. However, they differ from private companies in that they are rescued by the state if they run into economic problems. By 2008, these state-owned companies experienced great dynamism and were thus able to make a contribution to increasing state revenues. The government sector initiated the economic recovery process and increased growth in 2009 after the financial crisis . This is because most of the Chinese stimulus package was directed at these state-owned companies.

This type of economic system is defended from a Sino- Marxist perspective, which argues that a socialist planned economy is only possible after a comprehensive merchandise management system with market economy elements has been established. Only after it is fully developed will it eventually exhaust itself and gradually transform itself into a planned economy.

history

The transformation to a socialist market economy began in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping introduced his program of socialism with Chinese features . The reform and opening policy began with the decollectivization of agriculture and the toleration of the private sector and foreign direct investment from 1979 and later led to far-reaching reforms from the privatization of the state sector to the liberalization of trade and consumer goods prices to the abolition of welfare state benefits in the former Danwei system in the late 1990s. Since the beginning of Deng's reforms, China's gross domestic product has grown from around $ 150 billion to more than $ 1.6 trillion with an average annual growth rate of 9.4%. As of 2004, half of the remaining state-owned companies had already been converted into public companies.

The private sector's share of GDP rose from less than 1% in 1978 to 70% in 2005 and continues to grow. Because of the poor economic performance of traditional state-owned companies in the market economy, China embarked on a strategy of extensive privatization. In this model, although the state formally retains ownership and control of the large state-owned companies, it has little direct influence over their internal management.

Philosophical Debate

Despite the official designation as “socialism”, the socialist market economy is often described by Western observers as free market-based capitalism . Criticism in this direction also comes from the orthodox Marxists, who see in this system a restoration of capitalist property and production relations. The system disempowered the working class and led to a strong inequality between rich and poor and thus the formation of an ever-growing capitalist class.

Orthodox Marxists believe that such a socialist commodity economy is inherently contradictory. Other socialists believe that the PRC has taken too many capitalist elements into its system and that it ultimately leads to a capitalist economic system, especially through the way in which goods are produced. Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms were also criticized by the Chinese population, which was evident, for example, in the protests in Tian'anmen Square in 1989 , which, among other things, were directed against the widening gap between rich and poor.

Proponents of the system, especially from the Chinese side, argue with a strongly modified variant of historical materialism . According to their argumentation, this was adapted to the Chinese characteristics and the present.

The socialist market economy is defined as the initial stage of socialism . Oskar Weggel summarizes the related ideological leap as "gray area ideology":

“While China had already imagined itself to be in the final stage of socialism during the Great Leap in 1958 , the“ theory of the initial stage of socialism ”has now been announced 29 years later (!). It was not until 2049, exactly 100 years after the proclamation of the People's Republic, that the country was economically and socially mature enough to be able to enter the fully socialist stage. Until then, a transition period has to be passed through, which is called “socialist merchandise management”. If Marx laid out the revolution plan in three stages (capitalism, socialism, communism), from now on a five-stage scheme applied to China: semi-feudalism / capitalism - new democracy - socialist merchandise management - full socialism - communism. In the phase of commodity socialism, which is currently underway, it is important to act pragmatically and to use all those means that would advance the community socio-economically. "

More examples of socialist market economies

Web links

literature

  • Klaus Fritsche (ed.): Lost dreams . Socialist Development Strategies in the Third World. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 1989.
  • Rüdiger Machetzki (Ed.): Socialist and planned economy systems in Asia in transition . China - Southeast Asia currently: Volume 9. VISTAS Verlag, Berlin 1989.
  • Anneliese Braun: Fritz Behrens 'concept of a “socialist production of goods”, his criticism of state socialism and its relevance for the present, in: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Workers' Movement , Volume II / 2009.
  • Theodor Bergmann : structural problems of the communist movement. Wrong paths - criticism - renewal, VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Stephan Krüger: Economic Policy and Socialism. From political-economic minimum consensus to overcoming capitalism, VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Joseph Fewsmith: China Since Tiananmen. Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-521-00105-2 , p. 172. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  3. ↑ Online Extra: "China Is a Private-Sector Economy" - Businessweek. In: businessweek.com. August 21, 2005, accessed December 31, 2014 .
  4. ↑ How China rises - What lessons can be drawn from China's spectacular and sustained economic growth? ( Memento of May 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: 21stcenturysocialism.com
  5. ↑ Derek Scissors: China Myths for the New Decade. (No longer available online.) In: heritage.org. January 28, 2010; Archived from the original on September 10, 2010 ; accessed on December 31, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heritage.org
  6. ↑ Zhao Huanxin: China names key industries for absolute state control. In: chinadaily.com.cn. December 19, 2006, accessed December 31, 2014 .
  7. ↑ The Role of Planning in China's Market Economy ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adb.org
  8. ^ Jonathan R. Woetzel: Reassessing China's State-Owned Enterprises. In: forbes.com. July 8, 2008, accessed December 31, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Geoff Dyer, Richard McGregor on March 16, 2008: China's champions: Why state ownership is no longer proving a dead hand ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ David A. Ralston et al .: Today's State-Owned Enterprises of China: Are They Dying Dinosaurs or Dynamic Dynamos? ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ufirc.ou.edu
  11. ↑ China grows faster amid worries. In: bbc.co.uk. July 16, 2009, accessed December 31, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Duan Zhongqiao: { Market Economy and Socialist Road
  13. ↑ China has a socialist market economy in place (People's Daily Online, 2005).
  14. ^ Reform of China's State-owned Enterprises A Progress Report of Oxford Analytica ( Memento of January 26, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) In: worldbank.org
  15. ^ Tim Swanson: Long on China, Short on the United States. January 20, 2009, archived from the original on February 2, 2009 ; accessed on December 31, 2014 . In: scribd.com
  16. ^ Robert B. Reich on January 10, 2006: China: Capitalism Doesn't Require Democracy ( Memento of August 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: commondreams.org
  17. ^ In Defense of Marxism: China - "Socialist market economy" or just plain capitalism. In: marxist.com. November 14, 1993, accessed December 31, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Satya J. Gabriel: Strange Bedfellows? The Transition from State to Private Capitalism in China: The Network of Distributive Class Payments, Modernization, and Growth of the "New Social Strata": Is Capitalism in China to Stay? June 2003, accessed December 31, 2014 . In: mtholyoke.edu
  19. ↑ China's Blue Collar Blues (Part Two). In: theatlantic.com. Accessed December 31, 2014 .
  20. ^ Oskar Weggel : History of China in the 20th Century (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 414). Kröner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-520-41401-5 , p. 348.
  21. ↑ http://www.kas.de/vietnam/de/publications/13383/
  22. ↑ Konrad Clewing, Oliver Jens Schmitt (Ed.): South East Europe. Of premodern diversity and national standardization. Festschrift for Edgar Hösch (= Southeast European Works. 127). Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57888-X ( restricted online version (Google Books) ).