https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq en-us 2017-10-24 02:55:34 UTC 2025-10-23 11:17:22 UTC hello@padlet.com hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203572620 The implementation of the socialist market economy/ economic reform is what saved and destroyed the communist party in China by preserving its existence but destroyed its fundamental ideals on which it was based.]]> 2017-11-04 21:24:06 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203572620 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203575324 Pages 16-17]]> 2017-11-04 22:14:08 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203575324 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203575873 Chapter 6]]> 2017-11-04 22:26:26 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203575873 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203660350 In 1978 Deng Xiaoping instituted the beginnings of economic reform, experimenting initially by lifting government regulation on the agricultural market. These experiments were beginnings of reform that would later expand to other industries and become known as a "socialist market economy" which really caught on in the 1990s in which individuals would be allowed to create their own enterprises and the state no longer determined market prices. Not only did private enterprises emerge from this but the communist party broke down its previous planned economy sectors into state owned enterprises.]]> 2017-11-05 18:06:37 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203660350 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203732833 Chapter III and IV]]> 2017-11-06 04:30:06 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203732833 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203732998 The decline of the Soviet's top down command economy led to financial and ultimate collapse. It contained too many inefficiencies, had priorities according to the top and had too long a chain of command for information to be passed on. This type of un-optimal economy was not sustainable enough and could not provide the stimulation the Chinese economy needed. Without economic reform China would likely have continued to decline economically, eventually leading to uprising and overthrow of the then current authoritarian communist government similarly to the collapse of the Soviet Union.]]> 2017-11-06 04:31:48 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203732998 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203734247 The Institution of the "socialist market economy" allowed for the decentralization of the economic system allowing the previously more rigid centrally controlled structure to break down into state owned enterprises with more independence and focus. As the government increased the freedoms and establishments of corporations both public and state owned so too did the government's income. By establishing a market driven by supply and demand there was an increase in efficiency of production and pricing as well as choice for Chinese citizens. ]]> 2017-11-06 04:44:16 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203734247 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203735092 However, within a socialist society in the transition from communism, class would supposedly dissolve as the proletariate disassemble the old system in favor of one that puts the people in collective ownership of the means of production. In granting economic freedoms to individuals, allowing them to establish private companies, the government destroyed one of the key aspects of the ideology. The establishment of companies inevitably led to an imbalance in wealth and a formation of an upper and lower class especially with respect to the communist party officials themselves. As it has increasingly been the case that corruption is an issue within China's communist party to the point at which high up communist officials and their relatives are able to appropriate state funds in tremendous proportions. The issue arises with the disconnect between the state and the people. Theoretically in a communist state, the state and the people are synonymous but because the communist party controls the operations of the state and functions as an authoritarian government it receives arbitrary power when it comes to where state funds go. The increase in movement towards a more lucrative economic system can be seen in this light as a function of greed rather than progression of a communist state especially as the economic system has continued to move towards capitalism instead of reverse.]]> 2017-11-06 04:50:30 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203735092 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203736447 2017-11-06 04:59:38 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/203736447 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205144938 2017-11-09 06:45:56 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205144938 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205146211 With the growing understanding of China as a kleptocracy, what steps are the Chinese government going to have to take to quell the masses? One interesting distinction between the current economic system and that of the western capitalism is that property continues to be illegal in China, meaning that the state technically owns all of the land however it is leased to individuals (leasehold). Looking to the future there remains a question: Will freehold ownership (in which individuals are allowed to own land) win out, destroying the last remnants that the communist party could point to to distinguish themselves from true capitalists?]]> 2017-11-09 06:58:12 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205146211 hklein2018 https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205563734 There is however an argument or rational behind the implementation of a market economy by a supposedly Marxist following communist party which is that Marx suggested that communism would come about as an effect of capitalism running its course creating immense wealth disparities between the ruling economic Bourgeois class and the Proletariat working class. As the Proletariat would only be able to achieve at most a salary necessary to pay their rent and keep them generally alive they would have not even the opportunity to increase their wealth in the Bourgeois capitalist system. This idea of the growing disparities between the perpetually poor and the exceedingly rich would eventually lead to Proletariate class struggle against the Bourgeois as put at the end of the the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." After the Proletariate takeover in the case of well developed countries there would be the gradual phasing out of the old capitalist system through serious economic reforms such as "1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance." (Communist Manifesto Marx/Engels Chapter II) So it is arguable that the lack of a longstanding preexisting capitalist system to the takeover of the communist party in 1949 and the relatively quick institution of strict communist ideals especially during the Great Leap Forward ultimately led to ruin because of a lack of demonstrated proof of the inevitable failing of capitalist society. The older generations at the time were aware and had experienced different political conditions within their lifetime and had not experienced a catastrophic failure of capitalism and therefore were not entirely convinced of the communist ideology. This compounded with the catastrophic failure of the great leap forward ending with the great famine could only have weakened the faith in the communist party. Therefore, taking a big step backwards in Marxism's communist societal progression would allow the gradual phasing in of communism in which the people are more committed and educated to the cause and give a larger industrial base from which to build.]]> 2017-11-10 02:40:46 UTC https://padlet.com/hklein2018/f3xy98v3jhpq/wish/205563734