China's Economic Reform: An Experiment in Pragmatic Socialism

by Raphael Shen

Overview

Both Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping drastically altered the course of contemporary China's economic development using opposing strategies. Mao froze China's economic system in a perennial state of consumer goods shortages and pervasive macro disequilibria. Deng, however, began thawing a rigidly structured system by introducing experimental reform measures. Mao's revolutionary rhetoric brought China's economy to the brink of bankruptcy. Deng's ideological pragmatism netted China glowing successes. Mao closed China to the outside world. Deng engineered China's reintegration into the world economy.

Dismantling a dysfunctional system and replacing it with a dynamic new one involving 1.2 billion people is risk-laden. Reform in China began in 1978. It was tentative and experimental, confining reform to organizational and administrative decentralization on farms. Successes on farms ushered in reform elsewhere in the economy. Over time, market-based coordinating mechanisms progressively began replacing the system's control devices. Results from decentralization internally reinforced those from liberalization externally. This consequently transformed China's stale, distorted system into a more competitive, bustling new one ready for developmental takeoff. Its meteoric rise among the world's leading markets in recent years has thrust China's economy to the forefront of growth and development. Controlled, phased reform is yielding dividends, not only for its own consumers but for international economic cooperation and growth as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275963286
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/2000
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)

About the Author

RAPHAEL SHEN is Professor of Economics at the University of Detroit./e He is the author of numerous books on economies in transition. His latest publications include Ukraine's Economic Reform (Praeger, 1996) and The Restructuring of Romania's Economy (Praeger, 1997).

Table of Contents

Preface
China Under Mao
Pre Reform Economy
Reform: A Macro Overview
Agricultural Reform
Price Reform
Foreign Investment Reform
Foreign Trade Reform: Redesigning the Engine of Growth
Enterprise Reform
Fiscal and Monetary Reform
An Afterword: Entering the 21st Century
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Draws on official documents, laws and decrees, data, and current writings of recognized academicians to investigate major policy domains occupying China's reform architects. Focus is on economic issues relevant to systemic transformation. Coverage includes China under Mao, the pre-reform economy, and agricultural, price, foreign investment, and foreign trade reform, as well as enterprise and monetary reform. Shen teaches economics at the University of Detroit. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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