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Why Mixed Economy?

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There are three concepts that have shaped states’ economies so far; command economy, free-market economy and mixed economy. The free market economy provides people to follow their self-interest without government intervention while the central government takes decisions about land, labor and capital in command economy. Sloan (2007) mentions that, in essence, every economy combines of these two. Countries prefer mixed economy instead of other two opposite concepts that have never existed in rationally. The reasons why an increasing number of countries choose mixed economy is state as an entrepreneur and state as a rule of law can enforce the regulative process and it can solve the disputes between enterprises during the recession or crisis.

In the free-market economy, a pure capitalist system, firms and individuals determine all the production, labor and what to consume among them. The states basically follow philosophy of laissez-faire in this economy concept and governments do not take part in decision making of economic affairs. Therefore, the drawbacks of free market economy outweigh its advantages. Highly competitive markets can reduce the prices so that people can choose what is good for them, however, lack of state intervention can cause monopoly and unequal distribution of income. Schotter (1985) claims that selfishness and utility maximization can be exposed due to self-interests of the components–companies and people–in the free market. Ignoring the consequences of this greed can cause unequal distribution of power, environmental consequences, monopoly and unemployment. For instance, former U.S economy can be shown as a biggest example of this concept. They suffered from the disadvantages of free market economy in 1930’s, during the great depression. Government could not foresee and did not intervene the Wall Street crash in 1929. As a result, economy collapsed and many people became homeless and unemployed. Self-interest focused behaviors and failure of the state intervention caused inevitable consequences.

On the other hand, command economy, which is known communism, is an economic system that central authority controls all the production and services. There are always excessive state regulations in planned economies. Factories and land are owned by state, government takes decisions about what to produce and what to consume. There was no country purely applied planned economy concept but USSR, Cuba and China can be shown for a former examples of this economy. Especially, Russia, former Soviet Union, was the biggest region applied collectivist system after China. Planned economy can avoid unemployment and distribute income equally, however, complicated cumbersome bureaucracy cause problems. According to Dunmore (1980) problems aroused in the command economy of USSR can be explained by the complexity of the system, because, its size and structural complexity led to an ambiguity among ministerial bureaucrats, which provided them to distort and ignore the leader’s plans. It is obviously seen that, commands of the ministries obeyed rather than Stalin’s because of the quarrels among them. Therefore, complicated structure and cumbersome bureaucracy allowed officials a significant freedom to decide what is best for their interests.

However, in the mixed economy public and private sector equally take part in the economy so that they can keep their position in between of two contrary economic systems. Especially, public sector plays major part in mixed economy because government intervention constitutes the basis of the structure of this economic system. Providing economy to a legal structure, maintaining competition, promoting growth and stability are the main functions of governments that have to be taken into account. Friedmann (1971) states that even though the competition between public and private industry is hard to understand and complex, state has four functions in the mixed economy: state as a provider, state as a entrepreneur, state as a regulator and state as the rule of law. It means the states have to take part on economic process because the crisis between enterprises can be prevented by the enforcement of regulative process. For example, the rule of law can control the competition between roaming companies, if one of them is likely to be shifting from oligopoly to monopoly as a price maker. The states can protect its society by this way and also environmental consequences of the companies can be taken under control by government. The documentary film by Guy Smith (2009) states that after the 2008 global crisis, U.S government played a significant role, as a protector of the economy, and bailed out some companies with incentives and credits so some countries tended to transit their economies to mixed economy because of its advantages. Government and public sector play a guarantor role on economy with its rules and regulations. Therefore, it is crucial that to understand why government intervention is significant, especially, before the crisis is deepened.

As a consequence, choosing an economic system in a good combination can create a powerful economy. The effect of crisis and recessions can be reduced with the help of the state. State as an entrepreneur and regulator can avoid risks such as unequal income distribution, disputes between firms and individuals. Therefore, governments should enforce the regulative process and also should provide opportunities for private enterprises such as incentives. Active role of state is a must to protect private sector and individuals by laws. That’s why increasing number of countries choosing a mixed economy.

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