Economic Reform of Socialism: The Dengist Course in China

Abstract

After the death of Mao Zedong it became clear that the Chinese economy needed to be reformed. The need arose from the economy's serious quality problems: chronic shortages, waste, low factor productivity, and technological backwardness. By 1979 it had been decided that reform must be structural and consist of decentralization of decision making that involves marketization of transactions and privatization of property rights. For the centrally planned system's quality problems to be solved successfully, reform must be comprehensive, that is, systemwide, not partial and selective. China, however, opted for the latter. By mid-1988 it was clear that incomplete reform did not do the quality-improvement job expected of it and that it produced some additional problems. There were distinct signs of regression as the reform momentum fizzled out.

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References

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