Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Mixed Economy

Mixed Economy
The belief in the self-correcting quality of the market and the ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith got a
major setback in early 20th century during the Great Depression (1929). The impact of the depression
spread from the USA to the other economies of western Europe escalating large scale unemployment,
downfall in demand and economic activities and lockouts in industrial enterprises. The prevailing
Smithonian macro ideas failed to check the crisis. A new approach was needed which came in the
famous work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) by the English
economist at Cambridge University, John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946).
Keynes questioned the very principles of ‘laissez-faire’ and the nature of the ‘invisible hand’. He
even opined that the invisible hand brings equilibirium to the economy but by ‘strangulating the poor’.
He suggested that prices and wages of the labour are not flexible enough to provide employment to
all. It means there will be some people unemployed when the economy will be at its full potential.
Ultimately, a fall in demand will be imminent resulting in recession and if unchecked, in depression
which happened in 1929. Questioning the limitations of the market mechanism, Keynes suggested
strong government intervention in the economy. To get the economy out of the depression, he
suggested and increase in the government expenditures, discretionary fiscal policy (fiscal deficit,
lower interest rates, cheap money supply, etc.) to boost the demand of goods and services as this was
the reason behind the depression. As Keynesian policies were followed, the concerned economies
were successfully pulled out of the Great Depression.
While Keynes was inquiring into the causes and cures of the Great Depression he questioned the
capitalist economic system being practised throughout Euro-America. He suggested the capitalistic
order to assimilate the goals of the socialistic economy (economic ideals of the socialists i.e. the ex-
USSR). In the capitalist economies of the time, all the basic goods and services were part of the
market mechanism i.e. being produced and supplied by the private sector. It meant that almost
everything the people required was supplied by the private enterprises via the market which was
ultimately an undimensional movement of money and wealth (from the mass of people to the few who
controlled the production and supply chain) and the masses were going through the process of
pauperisation every day, thereby weakening their purchasing power. In the end, it affected overall
demand and culminated in the Great Depression.
As a follow up to the Keynesian advices, many trendsetting economic policies were initiated
throughout the capitalist economies. One very important initiative which came out was the
government’s active role in the economy. The governments started producing and supplying some
basic goods and services which are known as ‘public goods’. These goods basically intended to
guarantee minimum level of nutrition to all, healthcare, sanitation, education, social security, etc. The
expenditure on the public goods were incurred on the public exchequer even if it required deficit
financing. Starting from 1930s upto 1950s, almost 50 per cent of the GDP in the Euro-America was
spent by the governments on the public goods which also become popular as the social sector. The
essential goods and services which were till date being purchased by the people as ‘private goods’
were soon made available by the state ‘free-of-cost’ giving people more spare money to create
demand for the goods and services which were part of the market.
The above instance has been cited here to just show the process as to how capitalism redefined itself
by including some useful traits of the non-market economy i.e. the state economy. The mixed
economy arrived in this way and the classical capitalistic economy was challenged by it.
On the margins of the developments given above, it is interesting to note the developments in the State
Economies of the time. It was Prof. Oscar Lange (1904–65), the Polish philosopher, who in 1950s
suggested the same thing for the socialist economy as Keynes had for the capitalist. Prof. Lange
praised the state economy for many of its good things but also suggested inclusion of some of the good
things of the capitalistic economy2. He advised the state economies to adopt ‘market socialism’ (the
term was coined by him). His suggestions were outrightly rejected by the state economies as such
compromises in socialistic economic order were blasphemous at that time (this was ultimately a
suggestion towards democracy from dictatorship).
A s Keynes has suggested the capitalist economy to move few steps towards socialistic economy,
Prof. Lange was asking just the same in the case of the state economies. Democracies are flexible thus
they were able to go for an experiment which paid them in coming times. But as the socialist and
communist political systems had been stubborn by nature, they did not go for any experiment and thus
started moving towards their economic decay.
It was the communist China under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung where the first opinion came
against the total state economic control. And the ultimate example of the state economy (i.e., China)
started its preparation towards a limited market economy under the political design of dictatorship. In
1985, China announced its ‘open door policy’, the first experiment in ‘market socialism’ — Prof.
Lange had the last laugh. Other state economies, though caught unprepared, followed the Chinese
experiment towards market socialism. However, switch over to market socialism has not been
smooth for most of the state economies. The efforts towards market socialism in the Soviet Union,
fuelled by the lofty ideas of ‘glasnost’ (openness) and ‘prestroika’ (restructuring), resulted in the very
disintegration of the nation-state. The experts consider it ‘a political fallout of an economic
mismanagement’. The other state economies experienced major economic breakdowns in their
transition phases to market socialism. Basically, for smooth transition to market socialism some
prerequisites were required to be put in place aforehand. China was well ahead doing this homework
since Mao’s time (specially since 1975 onwards) which emerged as a real winner—the ideal type
example of state economy getting smoothly (!) metamorphosed into giant market economy.
These two events spanning many decades were nothing but timely and rational selections of economic
traits from each other’s economic systems and experiences. The world by the late 1980s was having
neither a pure example of capitalistic economy nor a pure example of state economy.
There were many states of the world that opted for mixed economy in the post-Second World War
periods after coming out of the colonial rule such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. to name a few.
The leadership of these countries could be considered visionaries which was to be proved by mid-
1990!
Though at practical levels, the world looked flat for the mixed economy, a formal opinion on the
goodness, immediacy and the ultimate viability of the mixed economy was yet to emerge. The first
such authoritative opinion, in this direction, came from the World Bank which accepted the goodness
and the need of ‘state intervention’ in the economy3. This was a turning point in the world economic
thinking as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were the ardent votaries
of the virtues of the free market economy.
The concluding consensus emerged with the publication of the World Development Report (1999)
titled Entering the 21st Century in which the WB said, “Governments play a vital role in
development, but there is no simple set of rules that tells them what to do.” The WB went on to
suggest in this important document that every country should determine the areas and the extent of the
market and the state intervention depending upon its own stage of economic development, sociopolitical
and other historical factors.
The last WB document had basically rejected both of the historically existing economic orders
namely the free-market economy and the state economy—which meant Adam Smith and Karl Marx
were cancelled and rejected outrightly, that too on the basis of the historical experiences of both the
worlds. Rather, the document advocates for the ‘mixture’ of both the economic orders i.e. the mixed
economy. The long-standing ideological dilemma as to whether the market economy or the state
economy was the better or the best way of organising the economy was solved for all time to come.
The document pin-pointed good things of both the systems and concluded that they don’t have the
relationship of dichotomy but that of complimentarity. The real issue is not whether to have market or
the state but having both of them together makes more sense. Market economy might suit one economy
while it might not suit another—due to the different socio-economic conditions of the economies in
reference. Similarly, the state economy model might serve one economy but might not serve the other.
The real answer seems going for neither market or state but a judicious combination of both. As the
state-market mix depends upon the socio-economic and political conditions of an economy, there can
never be a mechanical prototype of the mixed economy which could be applied upon every economy
universally. Every economy needs to explore its own mixture of market and state. Again, the same
state might need to redefine composition of the state-market mix in the coming times according to its
changed socio-eco-political scenario.
The process of economic reforms in India started in 1991. It was infact the search for a new ‘statemarket
mix’ while India had been a mixed economy since independence.
After independence, India opted for the mixed economy when the state-market dilemma was at its
peak in the world. In the process of organising the economy, some basic and important infrastructural
economic responsibilities were taken up by the State/Governments (centre and state) and rest of the
economic activities were left to private enterprise i.e. the market. The kind of state-market mix for
which India went was thought to be fit for the socio-economic and political conditions of the time.
Once the country started the process of economic reforms in early 1990s, the prevailing state-market
mix was redefined and a new form of mixed economy began to be practised. As the socioeconomic
conditions had changed the state-market mix also changed. The redefined mixed economy for India
had a declared favour for the market economy. Many economic roles which were under complete
government monopolies were now opened for participation by the private sector. Examples are many
—telecommunication, power, roads, oil and natural gas, etc. At the same time, the responsibilities
which were till date being shouldered by the state alone and which could be taken up by the state only
were given extra emphasis. In this category comes the whole social sector—education, healthcare,
drinking water, sanitation, nutrition, social security, etc.
The economic system of India was a mixed economy in pre-1991 years as it is in post-1991 years but
the composition of state-market mix has gone for a change. In future, as the socio-economic and
political factors will be changing, India will be redefining its mixed economy, accordingly.
The emergence and evolution of the mixed economy was thus able to settle the long-standing debate
as to what was the best way to organise an economy. Starting in 1776 with the Wealth of Nations of
Adam Smith, it continued till we had the World Development Report of 1999 by the WB4. The
dilemma continued for almost two and a quarter centuries (1776–2000). Today, once the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) has taken over the world economy, the brand of the mixed economy it
advocates, is more inclined towards the free market economy. But it does not propagate to make the
state an economic non-entity i.e., it leaves scope, for greater state intervention in the required areas if
need be.

No comments:

Post a Comment

CCE lesson for class 5 subject Hindi

CCE lesaon Class- 5 Subject- Hindi Chapter-1 For teachers who are making CCE lessons  of Hindi chapter 1.