Historically, a market economy is considered the brainchild of European capitalism, which arose in the XV-XVI centuries and is developing to this day. A wide private sector in the economy, free competition, market self-regulation - all
these are common features of a market economy. The antagonist for it and the long-competitive type of management is the command-administrative system. Essentially, the main distinguishing features of a market economy stem from its decentralization. Corporate fascist and socialist states dominated by the planned economic system. Under its conditions, all basic economic issues were subordinated to the needs of state power, and the central government took on the whole range of economic issues: what to produce, in what quantities, what elements to use in production, how to distribute the final product, and so on. The main features of a market economy stem from private ownership of the means of production. The state here acts only as a guarantor of constitutional norms, compliance with laws and equal opportunities. However, it does not take part in pricing, determining salaries, and does not directly accelerate the development of the necessary industrial sectors by direct intervention. In essence, this is the main distinguishing feature of a market economy. Others come from it:
- A variety of different forms of ownership appears. If under the command-planned system all means of production belong to the government, then
here, besides state ones, private, collective and community property rights are widely present.
- There is competition, which at a certain stage revitalizes the economic activity of society and raises the general standard of living. The disadvantage is that the winners of this competition eventually monopolize the market, turn into large corporations and begin to intervene in the social and political life of society.
- Pricing is based on the principle of supply and demand.
- The need to focus on the market often forces the manufacturer to improve the quality of their own goods.
Mixed management system
However, it should be noted that, despite the widespread belief that
modern world leaders develop their economies by liberalizing the market, the most popular today is the mixed type of management. The United States, Australia, Russia, Japan and many countries of the European Union are committed to it. It represents a synthesis of market values and a command and administrative system. Such large-scale crises as the Great Depression in the USA have clearly revealed the negative features of a market economy and forced Western governments to draw conclusions. Then, in the 1920s, the Herbert Hoover government for a long time did not make government efforts to overcome the crisis, hoping for successful natural self-regulation of the market. As you know, this did not lead to anything good. Modern progressive governments encourage the functioning of free enterprise relations and competition, but retain very weighty arguments for influence in the form of levers of fiscal policy. Due to this, the negative features of a market economy are smoothed out.
