Socialist market economy
Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
The socialist market economy was China's economic model under Deng Xiaoping from 1978. The Communist Party kept full political control. At the same time, the economy was opened to market forces and linked to world trade. This model brought fast growth, but it also raised new problems.
Example
Deng's reforms aimed at the Four Modernisations: science, industry, agriculture and defence. Critics later pointed to rising inequality between groups, regions and genders. Others called for a revival of Confucian tradition, so that China could modernise in its own way.
Don't confuse with
- Great Leap Forward (1958): This was Mao's state-driven campaign of communes and backyard furnaces. It did not use market principles.
Related concepts
- Communist Party of China
- Comintern
- Mao Zedong
- Long March
- People's Republic of China
- Great Leap Forward
- People's communes
- Cultural Revolution
- Deng Xiaoping
- Four Modernisations