DOCSLIB.ORG

I from the CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMY to CAPITALIST

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

FROM THE CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMY TO CAPITALIST GLOBALISATION: HOW ECONOMISTS UNDERESTIMATED THE GROWTH OF THE WORLD MARKET WILLIAM RICHARD JEFFERIES A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Marketing the Manchester Metropolitan University 2013 i The copyright of this thesis belongs to the author under the terms of the Copyright Act 1987 as qualified by Regulation 4 (1) of the Multimedia University Intellectual Property Regulations. Due acknowledgement shall always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. © William Jefferies, 2013 All rights reserved. ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work has been done by myself and no portion of the work contained in this Thesis has been submitted in support of any application for any other degree or qualification on this or any other university or institution of learning. _______________ William Jefferies iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Thanks to Tony Hines and Paul Brook for their support, encouragement and criticism and Viv Davies and Hillel Fridman for their helpful comments throughout. iv DEDICATION. To my brother Rob. v TABLE OF CONTENTS COPYRIGHT PAGE. ii DECLARATION . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT . iv DEDICATION . v TABLE OF CONTENTS. viii LIST OF TABLES. ix LIST OF FIGURES. x GLOSSARY xi ABSTRACT 1 CHAP TER 1: Introduction. 3 1 .1 Opening 3 1.2 Chapter 2 4 1.3 Chapter 3 4 1.4 Chapter 4 10 1.5 Chapter 5 12 1.6 Chapter 6 13 1.7 Chapter 7 17 CHAPTER 2: Marxist Method. 18 2.1 Marx’s materialism and the dialectical method 18 2.2 Abstraction and the Labour Theory of Value 24 2.3 The nature of value 31 2.4 Transformation problem 37 2.5 National accounting and statistics 61 CHAPTER 3: The Measurement of Soviet Economic Growth. 66 3.1 Five year plans 67 3.2 Concrete and abstract labour 71 vi 3.3 The Balance of 1923/4 76 3.4 The Soviet value debate 79 3.5 The Materialy 82 3.6 Colin Clark’s Critique of Russian Statistics 86 3.7 Leontief’s Russian National Income and Defense Expenditures 92 3.8 Julius Wyler’s National Income of Soviet Russia 94 3.9 Alexander Gerschenkron 96 3.1 Naum Jasny 100 3.11 Kaplan, Hodgman and Shimkin 105 3.12 Abram Bergson 107 3.13 G. Warren Nutter 119 3.14 Conclusion 122 CHAPTER 4: From Capitalism and Back Again. 125 4.1 The CMEA, MPS and CIA 125 4.2 The USSR from stagnation to collapse 128 4.3 The Transition in Central and Eastern Europe 132 4.4 World Bank Guide to the Historically Planned Economies (HPEs) 135 4.5 Productive and unproductive labour and the market boundary 141 4.6 The World Bank and Goskomstat 152 4.7 IMF National Accounts in the Transition Countries 155 4.8 China to the plan and back again 161 4.9 Western estimates 166 4.10 China measures of transition 167 4.11 Conclusion 176 CHAPTER 5: Empirical Evidence. 179 5.1 National Income 179 5.2 Official statistics 183 5.3 The Transition in CEE and CIS 185 5.4 The Transition in China 186 5.5 Electricity 189 5.6 Aluminium 194 5.7 Hydraulic Cement 197 5.8 Steel 200 5.9 Automobiles 203 5.1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) 205 5.11 China and Vietnam 207 5.12 CEE and CIS 209 5.13 Conclusion 215 vii CHAPTER 6: After the fall. 218 6.1 Bergson and the CIA reassessed 218 6.2 State capitalism 227 6.3 Marxism and globalisation 250 CHAPTER 7: Conclusion 282 REFERENCES . 299 viii LIST OF TABLES. Table 3.1 Real Income per head of population at 1934 Sterling Prices 90 Table 3.2 Production of the most important commodities per capita of the 94 population in the USSR and USA Table 3.3 National income or product of the Soviet Union, 1928-40 at market 96 prices in terms of U.S. Prices in 1940 Table 3.4 Investments in new Machinery, USSR, 1928-55, Alternative weights 114 (1937 = 100) Table 3.5 Gross National Product by Use, USSR, 1928-55, in 1937 Rouble 115 Prices and Factor Cost (1937=100) Table 3.6 GNP in 1937 prices 116 Table 4.1 Russian Federation: Shares in Manufacturing Ownership, Workforce 132 and Output, 1992, 1995 and 1998, in percentages Table 4.2 “Real” GDP growth in Central and Eastern Europe (% change) 133 Table 4.3 EBRD Transition Indicators for Russia and Poland selected years 136 Table 5.1 Private sector proportion of GDP % in CEE and CIS 186 Table 5.2 The proportion of Chinese output at market prices by sector 187 Table 5.3 CIS, CEE, Chinese and Vietnamese total, capitalist and centrally 192 planned electricity production 1990-2010 Table 5.4 World Electricity Production 1990-2010 193 Table 5.5 Total, capitalist and centrally planned electricity production decade 194 growth Table 5.6 CIS, CEE, Chinese and Vietnamese total, capitalist and centrally 195 planned aluminium production 1990-2010 Table 5.7 World Aluminium Production 1990-2010 196 Table 5.8 Total, capitalist and centrally planned aluminium production decade 197 growth Table 5.9 CIS, CEE, Chinese and Vietnamese total, capitalist and centrally 198 planned hydraulic cement production 1990-2010 Table 5.10 World hydraulic cement production 1989-2010 199 Table 5.11 Total, capitalist and centrally planned hydraulic cement production 200 decade growth Table 5.12 CIS, CEE, Chinese and Vietnamese total, capitalist and centrally 201 planned steel production 1990-2010 Table 5.13 World steel production 1989-2010 202 Table 5.14 World steel production decade growth 203 Table 5.15 CIS, CEE, Chinese total, capitalist and centrally planned steel 203 production 1991-2010 Table 5.16 World automobile production 1991-2010 204 Table 5.17 World automobile production decade growth 205 Table 5.18 China and Vietnam during the transition; total, centrally planned and 208 capitalist output 1978-2001 Table 5.19 The CEE and CIS during the transition, total, centrally planned and 210 capitalist production 1989-2010 Table 5.20 World capitalist transition 1978-2010 214 ix Table 5.21 World employment 1978-2010 215 Table 6.1 USSR and G7, 1980s, proportionate break down of exports and 244 imports percentage Table 6.2 Manufactured goods tariffs, effectively applied rate, simple average 256 of simple averages Table 6.3 G7 percent of employment in industry and services 260 Table 6.4 German per capita GDP, Unemployment and Manufacturing Unit 263 Labour Costs 1991-1998 LIST OF FIGURES. Figure 5.1 China and Vietnam transition to capitalism 209 Figure 5.2 Capitalist transition CEE & CIS 211 Figure 5.3 Capitalist transition in the CEE, CIS and China and Vietnam 212 Figure 6.1 World trade US current dollars and prices millions 257 Figure 6.2 CPE and transition economies imports and exports % world 1948-2011 258 Figure 6.3 Transition economies FDI Inward and Outward flows % world 1990- 259 2011 Figure 6.4 US rate of profit 1929-2012 267 x GLOSSARY. AFC - Adjusted Factor Cost BP - British Petroleum CCA - Capital Consumption Allowance CCP - Chinese Communist Party CEE - Central and Eastern Europe CES - Conference of European Statisticians CIA - Central Intelligence Agency CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States CMEA - Comecon (the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) CPE - Centrally Planned Economy CPSU - Communist Party Soviet Union EBRD - European Bank of Reconstruction and Development FDI – Foreign Direct Investment FSU - Former Soviet Union G7 - Group of Seven; the U.S., Japan, France, Germany, Italy, U.K. and Canada GDP - Gross Domestic Product GGDC - Groningen Growth and Development Centre GK - Geary Khamis GNP - Gross National Product HPE - Historical Planned Economies IBRD - International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank IMF - International Monetary Fund IVA - Inventory Valuation Adjustment JEC - Joint Economic Council MELT - Monetary Equivalent of Labour Time MIC - Military Industrial Complex MPS - Material Product System NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research NDP - Net Domestic Product NEP - New Economic Policy NMP - Net Material Product xi NNP - Net National Product OCC - Organic Composition of Capital OECD - Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development OICA - International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers OSS - Office of Strategic Services PPP - Purchasing Power Parity Project RAND - US Air Force Project Research and Development RoP - Rate of Profit SEZ - Special Economic Zone SNA - System of National Accounts SNIP - Abram Bergson’s The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 SSB - Chinese State Statistical Bureau TMT - Thousand Metric Tons TSSI - Temporal Single System Interpretation TWH - Terawatt-hours UN - United Nations UNCTAD - United Nations Conference Trade and Development USGS - United States Geological Survey USSR - United Soviet Socialist Republics WSA - World Steel Association WTO - World Trade Organisation xii ABSTRACT The expansion of the world market in the 1990s was significantly accelerated by the transition of formerly centrally planned economies of the USSR, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), China and Vietnam into capitalist ones. Prior to the introduction of the market in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and CEE during the late 1980s and in China and Vietnam from 1978, there was no genuine market production in them, by definition. This transition transformed these economies from top to bottom and subordinated them to market prices. In the CIS and CEE the transition to capitalism was profoundly destructive with huge output falls exceeding even the destruction wrought following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The collapse of centrally planned production was measured as a very large fall in national income by all of the official statistical agencies.
Recommended publications
  • Socialist Planning

    Socialist Planning

    Socialist Planning Socialist planning played an enormous role in the economic and political history of the twentieth century. Beginning in the USSR it spread round the world. It influenced economic institutions and economic policy in countries as varied as Bulgaria, USA, China, Japan, India, Poland and France. How did it work? What were its weaknesses and strengths? What is its legacy for the twenty-first century? Now in its third edition, this textbook is fully updated to cover the findings of the period since the collapse of the USSR. It provides an overview of socialist planning, explains the underlying theory and its limitations, looks at its implementation in various sectors of the economy, and places developments in their historical context. A new chap- ter analyses how planning worked in the defence–industry complex. This book is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in comparative economic systems and twentieth-century economic history. michael ellman is Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the author, co- author and editor of numerous books and articles on the Soviet and Russian economies, on transition economics, and on Soviet economic and political history. In 1998, he was awarded the Kondratieff prize for his ‘contributions to the development of the social sciences’. Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 128.122.253.212 on Sat Jan 10 18:08:28 GMT 2015. http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139871341 Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015 Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 128.122.253.212 on Sat Jan 10 18:08:28 GMT 2015.
  • Doi:10.1163/18763308- 04501002)

    Doi:10.1163/18763308- 04501002)

    Davidson, N. (2018) The “law” of uneven and combined development: Part 1. East Central Europe, 45(1), pp. 13-38.(doi:10.1163/18763308- 04501002) This is the author’s final accepted version. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/162245 Deposited on: 06 June 2018 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk The “Law” of Uneven and Combined Development Part 1: Sources and Components NEIL DAVIDSON University of Glasgow Introduction The two concepts for which Leon Trotsky is perhaps best known are his version of the strategy of permanent revolution, first outlined in Results and Prospects (1906), and the “law” of uneven and combined development, introduced in The History of the Russian Revolution (1930) and intended to explain the conditions which made the former possible. The term “permanent revolution” can be traced to the 1840s and the concept further back still. Trotsky infused it with a new meaning, but for tactical reasons during his struggle with Stalin in the 1920s he often claimed that his conception was essentially the same as that used by Marx in 1850 (Trotsky 1976: 308; 1981: 349–351) and then by some of his contemporaries, particularly Mehring and Luxemburg between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions (Trotsky 1975a: 102; 1975b: 209). Uneven and combined development was Trotsky’s own coinage, but it too had an antecedent in the notion of “uneven development,” which appears as early as the eighteenth century.
  • Che Guevara's Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy

    Che Guevara's Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy

    SOCIALIST VOICE / JUNE 2008 / 1 Contents 249. Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy. John Riddell 250. From Marx to Morales: Indigenous Socialism and the Latin Americanization of Marxism. John Riddell 251. Bolivian President Condemns Europe’s Anti-Migrant Law. Evo Morales 252. Harvest of Injustice: The Oppression of Migrant Workers on Canadian Farms. Adriana Paz 253. Revolutionary Organization Today: Part One. Paul Le Blanc and John Riddell 254. Revolutionary Organization Today: Part Two. Paul Le Blanc and John Riddell 255. The Harper ‘Apology’ — Saying ‘Sorry’ with a Forked Tongue. Mike Krebs ——————————————————————————————————— Socialist Voice #249, June 8, 2008 Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy By John Riddell One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism. A milestone in this process was the publication in 2006 by Ocean Press and Cuba’s Centro de Estudios Che Guevara of Apuntes criticos a la economía política [Critical Notes on Political Economy], a collection of Che’s writings from the years 1962 to 1965, many of them previously unpublished. The book includes a lengthy excerpt from a letter to Fidel Castro, entitled “Some Thoughts on the Transition to Socialism.” In it, in extremely condensed comments, Che presented his views on economic development in the Soviet Union.[1] In 1965, the Soviet economy stood at the end of a period of rapid growth that had brought improvements to the still very low living standards of working people.
  • POLITICAL ECONOMY for SOCIALISM Also by Makoto Itoh

    POLITICAL ECONOMY for SOCIALISM Also by Makoto Itoh

    POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR SOCIALISM Also by Makoto Itoh TilE BASIC TIIEORY OF CAPITALISM TilE VALUE CONTROVERSY (co-author with I. Steedman and others) TilE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS AND JAPANESE CAPITALISM VALUE AND CRISIS Political Economy for Socialism Makoto ltoh Professor of Economics University of Tokyo M St. Martin's Press © Makoto ltoh 1995 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-55338-1 ISBN 978-1-349-24018-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24018-0 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 First published in the United States of America 1995 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth A venue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12564-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ltoh, Makoto, 1936-- Political economy for socialism I Makoto Itoh.
  • The Soviet Union After 1945: Economic Recovery and Political Repression

    The Soviet Union After 1945: Economic Recovery and Political Repression

    The Soviet Union after 1945: Economic Recovery and Political Repression Mark Harrison* Department of Economics, University of Warwick Centre for Russian & East European Studies, University of Birmingham Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University Abstract Salient features of the Soviet Union after World War II include rapid economic recovery and the consolidation of Stalin’s rule. Both economic recovery and political consolidation are explained in large part by temporary factors arising from the war. Rapid postwar growth is attributed to the scope arising from a combination of preceding shocks that included the war itself but also stretched back into the prewar years. Political-economy considerations link Stalin’s capacity to organizing recovery while delaying reforms to the quality of repression, based on his exploitation of the war as a source of new information about the citizens over whom he ruled. JEL Codes: E1, N4, P2 * Mail: Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Email: [email protected]. First draft: December 11, 2006. This version: April 14, 2010. The Soviet Union after 1945: Economic Recovery and Political Repression The story of the Soviet Union’s postwar years appears almost as remarkable as the story of the war.1 The USSR came to victory in 1945 only after first coming close to total defeat. In 1945 the Red Army occupied Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Sofia, but behind the army the country lay in ruins. Its people had suffered 25 million premature deaths. The survivors were profoundly weary. Many hoped for reconciliation and relaxation.
  • The Way to the Socialist Planned Economy

    The Way to the Socialist Planned Economy

    The Way to the Socialist Planned Economy Marek Breit and Oskar Lange Translated by Jan Toporowski* Abstract: This is the first English translation of a 1934 article by Marek Breit and Oskar Lange on the economics of socialism. Breit and Lange advocate a form of market socialism based on self-managed workers’ cooperatives, with membership open to all who wish to join. 1 The Breakdown of the Capitalist Economy Otto Bauer said not very long ago that ‘the fall of the second workers’ government in England, the events of recent years, and especially in the current year in Germany, mark the end of an epoch and the start of a new one in the history of the international workers’ movement. We find ourselves at the start of a period of severe, protracted economic crises, broken only by short moments of respite; a period in which the proletariat will rather be convinced of how narrow are the boundaries with which the world capitalist economy limits the possibilities for liberation of the working class, and how these binding constraints may only be removed together with the whole capitalist system.’1 Essentially the world-wide economic crisis, the likes of which the capitalist economy has not experienced since its beginnings, shows the complete bankruptcy of the capitalist economic system. Nothing so demonstrates that complete bankruptcy, the total breakdown of the capitalist economy, as the co-existence of poverty with excess that is met at every step. When the masses of the people in the capitalist economies are oppressed by unprecedented poverty, stores are packed with goods for which there are no buyers; when millions are starving, grain and coffee are sunk at sea or burnt; when millions cannot clothe themselves, spinning and weaving plants stand idle.
  • 77 3 the Estimation of Gross Domestic Product and Its Growth

    77 3 the Estimation of Gross Domestic Product and Its Growth

    LA7.772 - 3 The Estimation of Gross Domestic Product and Its Growth Rate for the German Democratic Republic Public Disclosure Authorized Irwin L. Collier . r', 'WORLD BANK STAFF WORKING PAPERS Number 773 A Background Study for Doilar GNPs of the U.S.S.R. anid Ensfern Euirope Public Disclosure Authorized 0- ..- Public Disclosure Authorized 0 0- Public Disclosure Authorized WORLD BANK STAFF WORKING PAPERS Number 773 A Background Study for Dollar GNPs of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe The Estimation of Gross Domestic Producd and Its Growth Rate for the German Democratic Republic Irwin L. Collier The World Bank Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Copyright (© 1985 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing November 1985 This is a working document published informally by the World Bank. To present the results of research with the least possible delay, the typescript has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formal printed texts, and the World Bank accepts no responsibility for errors. The publication is supplied at a token charge to defray part of the cost of manufacdtue and distribution. The World Bank does not accept responsibility for the views expressed herein, which are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank or to its affiliated organizations. The findings, interpretations, and conclusioins are the results of rescilch supported by the Bank; they do not necessarily represent official policy of the Bank.
  • The Reliability of China's Economic Data

    The Reliability of China's Economic Data

    U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Research Project January 28, 2013 The Reliability of China’s Economic Data: An Analysis of National Output by Iacob N. Koch-Weser USCC Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade Disclaimer: This paper is the product of professional research performed by staff of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and was prepared at the request of the Commission to support its deliberations. Posting of the report to the Commission’s website is intended to promote greater public understanding of the issues addressed by the Commission in its ongoing assessment of U.S.-China economic relations and their implications for U.S. security, as mandated by Public Law 106-398 and Public Law 108-7. However, the public release of this document does not necessarily imply an endorsement by the Commission, any individual Commissioner, or the Commission’s other professional staff, of the views or conclusions expressed in this staff research report. 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 2 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Section I: The Quality of Statistical Work .....................................................................................
  • World Bank Document

    World Bank Document

    Report No. 26839-RU No. Report Russian Federation Country Financial Accountablility Assessment Accountablility Financial Country Federation Russian Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank World Document of the Asia Region Europe and Central and Services Unit Policy Operations September 16, 2003 Assessment Accountability Country Financial Russian Federation Report No. 26839-RU CTJFtFtENCY EOUIVALENTS Unit of currency = Ruble EXCHANGE RATE US$ 1 = 3 1.825 Rubles (December 30,2002) ACRONYMNS AND ABBREVIATIONS AC Accounts Chamber PAC Public Accounts Committee ASOSAI Asian Organization of Supreme Audit PEIR Public Expenditure and Institutional Institutions Review CAS Country Assistance Strategy PIU Project Implementation Unit CBR Central Bank of Russia PSC Public Sector Committee COA Chart of Accounts RF Russian Federation CID Control and Inspections Division RFTA Regional Fiscal Technical Assistance CIFA Core Integrative Fiduciary Assessment ROSC Report on Observance of Standards and Code CPI Corruption Perceptions Index SAI Supreme Audit Institution CPPR Country Portfolio Performance Reviews SAL Sectoral Adjustment Loan DFID Department for International Development SNAO Swedish national Accounting Office (UK) ESW Economic and Sector Work SOE State-Owned Enterprise EUROSAI European Organization of Supreme Audit su Spending Units Institutions FMI Financial Management Initiative TGL Treasury General Ledger FMIS Financial Management Information
  • Salgado Munoz, Manuel (2019) Origins of Permanent Revolution Theory: the Formation of Marxism As a Tradition (1865-1895) and 'The First Trotsky'

    Salgado Munoz, Manuel (2019) Origins of Permanent Revolution Theory: the Formation of Marxism As a Tradition (1865-1895) and 'The First Trotsky'

    Salgado Munoz, Manuel (2019) Origins of permanent revolution theory: the formation of Marxism as a tradition (1865-1895) and 'the first Trotsky'. Introductory dimensions. MRes thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/74328/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Origins of permanent revolution theory: the formation of Marxism as a tradition (1865-1895) and 'the first Trotsky'. Introductory dimensions Full name of Author: Manuel Salgado Munoz Any qualifications: Sociologist Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Research School of Social & Political Sciences, Sociology Supervisor: Neil Davidson University of Glasgow March-April 2019 Abstract Investigating the period of emergence of Marxism as a tradition between 1865 and 1895, this work examines some key questions elucidating Trotsky's theoretical developments during the first decade of the XXth century. Emphasizing the role of such authors like Plekhanov, Johann Baptists von Schweitzer, Lenin and Zetkin in the developing of a 'Classical Marxism' that served as the foundation of the first formulation of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, it treats three introductory dimensions of this larger problematic: primitive communism and its feminist implications, the debate on the relations between the productive forces and the relations of production, and the first apprehensions of Marx's economic mature works.
  • Structural Change in Russian Transition

    Structural Change in Russian Transition

    Gregory: Russian Structural Change 5/28/2004 Structural Change in Russian Transition Paul R. Gregory Professor of Economics University of Houston May 25, 2004 Final Version Gregory: Russian Structural Change 5/28/2004 INTRODUCTION Socialist economies such as the Soviet Union practiced centralized distribution of resources according to what became known as “planner’s preferences”.1 Planner’s preferences were essentially the preferences of the dictatorial government rather than of consumers. The distribution of resources was also affected by special interests such as the military-industrial complex or the heavy industry lobby. In addition, rigidity of material balance planning or “planning from the achieved level,” produced additional deviations from market-like resource allocations. Finally, relative autarky of the socialist economies (primarily limited to intra- COMECON trade) prevented them from realizing their comparative advantages and created additional biases. Consequently, the patterns of resource allocation and structural proportions (as observed in the structure of GDP, consumer budgets, foreign trade, and so on) that emerged in the Soviet period differed significantly from those of market economies at similar levels of development. These structural distortions produced inefficiencies that were in part responsible for inadequate levels and distorted structures of consumption in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union and for the stagnation of these economies in the 1970s and 1980s.2 Transitional economies, including Russia, started their transformation with initial conditions inherited from the pre-existing socialist economies. It is therefore natural to expect that these economies, after the removal of the constraints of planning, should move in the direction of more “normal” proportions of market economies in the process.
  • Management of Technology in Centrally Planned Economy

    Management of Technology in Centrally Planned Economy

    O o/ tec^"^ MM UBCA Viuimiii HD28 .M414 III 3 -1060 OObOlBEfi 9o WORKING PAPER ALFRED P. SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Management of Technology in Centrally Planned Economy Jong-Tsong Chiang February 1990 WP 3130-90-BPS MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139 1990 lAPRlS. ) O ij c?'< Management of Technology in Centrally Planned Economy Jong-Tsong Chiang February 1990 WP 3130-90-BPS The author is grateful to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Institute of Social Management of Bulgaria, the Prague University of Economics, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the USSR Academy of Sciences for their financial support and other assistance in doing the field research. He is also deeply indebted to many friends' invaluable information, advice, help, and interpretation. — " II fritiwi.^-"-^ Management of Technology in Centrally Planned Economy Abstract This paper studies the management of technology in centrally planned economies, namely, the USSR and East European countries. From a cross-technology perspective, technologies under investigation mainly cover military, nuclear power and computers with a view to contrasting their distinctions. To further support the arguments made, technologies like space, laser, automation, new biotechnology and new materials are also mentioned where appropriate. In addition to the cases in different national contexts, the international cooperation within the framework of the CMEA (or COMECON: the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) is discussed. To depict the patterns of management of technology in the East as opposed to that in the West, only systematically determined issues are the main foci in this paper. The preliminary conclusions reached are: 1.