The economy of developed socialism is a table. The economy of developed socialism: the pros and cons

The unstable economic situation in the country in the early 60s of the last century gave rise to doubts about the effectiveness and expediency of the administrative dictatorship even among the leadership of the state. Even in Khrushchev's time, a discussion began in print media about new production incentives. A new term appeared on their pages - "the economy of developed socialism". Reforms (a table reflecting the main transformations, will be given later in the article), on the whole did not reject the directive model. However, along with this, certain mechanisms of self-regulation were introduced, as well as material incentives for producers to work efficiency. Let us further consider what the economy of developed socialism represented itself , the pros and cons of the measures taken.

Transformations in agriculture

What measures did the economy of developed socialism envisage? Reforms primarily concerned agriculture. Their beginning was announced in March 1965. Measures aimed at solving social problems in the village, introducing economic incentives for work were outlined. Purchasing prices were raised, a 50% premium to the basic cost for the sale of products over the plan was introduced. Along with this, capital investments also increased. The economy of developed socialism in the USSR presupposed the establishment of a ten-year fixed plan for state purchases. To increase incentives, restrictions were reduced on the maintenance of personal subsidiary plots.

Disadvantages of changes

The economy of developed socialism relied on administrative levers. The state authorities continued to strive to strengthen the role of the Ministers of Agriculture in the management and planning of the agrarian sector. An emphasis was placed on increasing investment and writing off the debts of collective farms. A huge amount of money was spent on the development of the agricultural sector. However, they were used extremely ineffectively. Some of the funds were used to build giant complexes, purchase expensive equipment, carry out ill-conceived chemicals and reclaim soil. Solid money salaries were introduced in the collective farms. At its core - this is one of the most important achievements in the social sphere. However, after their introduction, dependent moods began to develop. What was the result of the economy of developed socialism? The conclusion is very disappointing. As a result of the transformation, the activity of state farms and collective farms became unprofitable. For 25 years, between 1964 and 1988, there was a decrease in cultivated arable land by 22 million hectares. Losses in agricultural output were also high. The losses in this sector were from 20 to 40%. The country, which possessed fertile black earth, became the world's largest importer of food and grain.

Industrial sector

The economy of developed socialism in the initial stages developed through the improvement of the economic mechanism or the stimulation of workers. In September 1965, the leaders of the reforms tried to combine these approaches. So began the changes in the industrial sector. Unlike agriculture, the reforms did not reject the basis of the directive economy. The main principles of activity were changes in planning conditions and increased incentives. The economy of developed socialism maintained strict standards for the volume of output. Together with this, new indicators were introduced aimed at ensuring the quality of the goods. To increase incentives, producers were allowed to keep part of the proceeds at the disposal of enterprises. Profit was divided into funds:

• Self-financing of production.
• Household and socio-cultural development (construction of boarding houses, clubs, housing and so on).
• Material incentive.

The economy of developed socialism assumed that the branch ministries planned to be restored would act not as former "dictators" but as consultants and partners of enterprises. They were to facilitate the organization of production on the basis of self-financing, based on the strengthening of self-government, self-financing and self-sufficiency. Within the framework of measures that included the economy of developed socialism, a combination of a single state planning with a local initiative was envisaged. At the same time, the right to adjust plans that passed approval was owned only by the enterprises themselves.

Economics of developed socialism: briefly on the results of industrial reforms

Despite all the contradictions and limitations, the transformations entailed a significant result. At the end of the Eighth Five-Year Plan, from 1966 to 1970, there was an increase in industrial output 1.5 times. About 1,900 large enterprises were built in the country. Among them, for example, Volzhsky plant in Togliatti. But by the end of the sixties the course of reforms had slowed down. This was due to fairly objective reasons. First of all, the proportion of the able-bodied population has significantly decreased in the country. In addition, the traditional raw materials base has been depleted, fossil extraction has risen sharply, obsolete equipment has become obsolete, military expenditures have increased. But the main problem was that the very economic model, which rejected all innovations, exhausted itself - development could go on inertia for a period, but in the long term the system was doomed to failure.

Main problems

Reform generated certain difficulties. In particular, the construction of giant production complexes led to monopolization in the industry. This, in turn, caused low quality products and lack of choice among consumers. The introduction of indicators for assessing quality at the price of the goods has not only led to its appreciation, but also to a significant reduction in the volume of production. As a result, there was a shortage of products. The volume of imports of products that the domestic industry could not produce was increasing every year.

Preservation of political regime

The economy of developed socialism was failing. What was the reason for this? In the leadership, retold the opinion of Brezhnev on the report made by Kosygin at the plenum in September 1965. In the ruling circles it was believed that the reform would lead to nothing. And it was not the need for change, but the lack of desire to work. According to some authors, it was this attitude that caused the insolvency of the reform. Soon the emphasis was shifted to new resources of raw materials that were discovered in the eastern part of the country. At the same time, it was decided to adjust the system of economic management. In 1979, an attempt was made to revive the situation by improving economic levers and strengthening the influence of party leadership. But all these efforts could not solve the problems. In the ruling circles, they began again to talk about the advantages of a moral stimulus over the material incentive. To compensate for the shortcomings in the imperfection of the economic mechanism, socialist competitions revived. Only in 1983, after the death of Brezhnev, Andropov - the new leader of the country - undertook a "large-scale experiment". In the course of it it was planned to weaken centralized distribution and planning, to make a number of changes in pricing at the level of certain regions and enterprises. These events were successful, but the effect was short-lived. As before, the change of economic levers remained an urgent problem.

NTP

By the early 1970s, the West began the stage of post-industrial development. This entailed the automation of production processes, the massive use of computers and robots, the introduction of new high technology. Along with this, the individualization of labor began, its transformation into creative activity, free from restrictions. In the USSR they talked a lot about NTP. Within the framework of the emerging scientific and technological progress, first-class models of computers were created in the country. In 1971, at a regular congress of the CPSU, a new installation was made. The plan for the following years was to be realized by combining the achievements of progress with the advantages of socialism. But the shortcomings of the existing regime significantly slowed the progress of technology and science, the introduction of achievements in the production process. Periodically, there were reports of major developments and discoveries. However, if they were not of military importance, they remained unrealized due to lack of funds, as well as lack of support from developers in those bodies where the fate of the discoveries was decided.

Attempts to solve the problem of NTP

The country's leadership began to understand the need for a transition to progressive production methods. As a result, the number of large enterprises that are being built every year has decreased four-fold. Instead, NGOs began to be established (scientific production associations), new industries appeared (nuclear engineering, microelectronics, robotics, and so on). Despite the efforts made, these trends could not become decisive. Soviet scientists conducted first-class, and sometimes unique, developments in fundamental science. However, in practical life, scientific and technological progress was almost not felt. By the 1980s, about 40% of workers, 60% of construction workers, and 75% of rural workers still worked by hand.

The reaction of the world community

It should be noted that by 1985 in the US there were about 1.5 million newest computers and about 17 million PCs. In the USSR at that time, several tens of thousands of such machines operated, the vast majority of which were obsolete models. The aggravation of the situation was caused by the sanctions adopted in the West in the early 1980s. As a result of their introduction in the USSR, the introduction of advanced models of technology, as well as high technology from abroad, has practically ceased. Thus, by the mid-1980s the country again, like in the 1920s, was under threat of a new backlog from Western states.

The economy of developed socialism (table)

Finally

What was the result of the economy of developed socialism? The table presented above shows that the picture as a whole is depressing. However, the situation of the main part of the population has improved somewhat. More and more people continued to live in communal apartments, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines began to appear in homes. There was also a small increase in wages. Nevertheless, in terms of consumption level, the country occupied only 77th place in the world.