Socialist Planning Quotes

“There were three reasons why socialist planning was not adopted by the advanced countries. First, in those countries capitalism led to a huge and historically unprecedented increase in real wages, a development not foreseen by Marx or the Communist parties. Secondly, the advanced countries were not backward countries struggling to catch up. Thirdly, the experience of socialist planning – although it had some important achievements to its credit – did not demonstrate a clear superiority over capitalism. Indeed, in some respects it demonstrated a clear inferiority with respect to capitalism.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“This orientation of socialist planning to the building up of military might is one of the reasons why the USSR, unlike Japan, failed to catch up with the leading capitalist countries in the civilian sector of the economy. Military programmes were a burden on the economy.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“The socialist planning system had a number of important achievements to its credit. It introduced mass production into Soviet industry. It greatly increased the output of a number of key industrial sectors, such as oil and steel. It produced the huge number of weapons necessary to emerge victorious from World War II. It provided full employment. It produced the world’s first earth satellite. It invested heavily in human capital. Its educational system (except in the social sciences) was good by international standards, and produced large numbers of qualified people. During the 1950s the USSR enjoyed a golden age with growth rates much in excess of those in the USA or UK. However, socialist planning also had a number of problems. These included: shortages of consumer goods; inability to take full advantage of the world market for goods, capital and people; slow home-grown technical progress; and living standards that lagged behind those in capitalist countries. In addition, the high growth rates of the 1950s gradually declined.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“However, not all countries that rejected socialist planning made a complete system-switch. Some of them (e.g. China and Vietnam) retained the political dictatorship and developed an economic system which combined a largely market economy and strategic integration into the world economy with a dominant state role in the economy.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“The present author regards the main features of the traditional model as:

1. state ownership of the means of production;
2. political dictatorship;
3. a mono-hierarchical system;
4. imperative planning;
5. a subordinate role for money, profit, prices and banks.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“From a Marxist–Leninist point of view, the frittering away of resources in capitalist countries (e.g. in activities such as advertising, trading in financial assets, lengthy and expensive legal proceedings, etc.) and their failure to mobilise many of the resources available (unemployment, low participation rates, unused production capacity) contrast adversely with the high mobilisation of resources in the traditional model.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning

“In a system of imperative planning, the main job of the enterprises is to carry out orders from above. It is for this that they are judged. Whether or not the output meets the wishes of consumers is a matter of indifference for the enterprises. Hence, under the traditional model there was often a substantial gulf between the volume of output and its usefulness.”
― Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning