What is the Socialist Market Economy?

Dominique Rambures

Chapter 1 in The China Development Model, 2015, pp 9-22 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract For any sensible mind, the term ‘socialist market economy’ is an oxymoron the two adjectives conflict. This definition appeared relatively late — in 1992, during the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China — as the policy of reform and opening that began in 1978. Up to this point, one spoke of a ‘commodity economy’ to avoid using the words ‘market economy’, which were taboo. The ‘market economy’ was discovered before the word was used. The policy of ‘reform and opening’ was meant to be a transition, but a transition to what? Towards socialism, or towards capitalism? It took Poland three years to complete what China has not yet achieved in thirty. The word ‘transition’ is the only stable part of the policy of reform — a sort of new ‘perpetual permanent revolution’, to paraphrase Lenin. However, the idea that something goes from A to B is not consistent with the traditional Chinese way of thinking. Everything is ephemeral; all events are part of a continuum without a beginning or an end. Everything forms part of the flow of the eternal stream of all things. Nothing is fixed, not even the truth — which is contingent by definition.

Keywords: Banking Sector; Initial Public Offering; Bank Saving; Bank Lending; Investment Company (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-46549-8_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137465498

DOI: 10.1057/9781137465498_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().