A mixed economy is an economic system that is variously defined as containing a mixture of markets and economic planning, in which both the private sector and state direct the economy; or as a mixture of public ownership and private ownership; or as a mixture of free markets with economic interventionism. Most mixed economies can be described as market economies with strong regulatory oversight and governmental provision of public goods. Some mixed economies also feature a variety of state-run enterprises.
In general the mixed economy is characterised by the private ownership of the means of production, the dominance of markets for economic coordination, with profit-seeking enterprise and the accumulation of capital remaining the fundamental driving force behind economic activity. But unlike a free-market economy, the government would wield indirect macroeconomic influence over the economy through fiscal and monetary policies designed to counteract economic downturns and capitalism's tendency toward financial crises and unemployment, along with playing a role in interventions that promote social welfare. Subsequently, some mixed economies have expanded in scope to include a role for indicative economic planning and/or large public enterprise sectors.
Economies ranging from the United States to Cuba have been termed mixed economies. The term is also used to describe the economies of countries which are referred to as welfare states, such as the Nordic countries. Governments in mixed economies often provide environmental protection, maintenance of employment standards, a standardized welfare system, and maintenance of competition.
As an economic ideal, mixed economies are supported by people of various political persuasions, typically centre-left and centre-right, such as social democrats or Christian democrats. Supporters view mixed economies as a compromise between state socialism and free-market capitalism that is superior in net effect to either of those. Around the world, the most prosperous countries with the highest average standard of living tend to have mixed economic systems with democratically elected governments.
Etymology
There is not one single definition for a mixed economy; there are generally two major definitions, one being political and the other apolitical. The political definition of mixed economy refers to the degree of state interventionism in a capitalist market economy, portraying the state as encroaching onto the market under the assumption that the market is the "natural" mechanism for allocating resources. The political definition precludes an extension to non-capitalist systems and is concerned with public policy and state influence in a capitalist market system, whereas the apolitical definition relates to patterns of ownership and management of economic enterprises in a society. The apolitical definition of mixed economy refers to a mix of public and private ownership of enterprises in the economy and is unconcerned with political forms and public policy.
History
The term mixed economy arose in the context of political debate in the United Kingdom in the postwar period, although the set of policies later associated with the term had been advocated from at least the 1930s. Supporters of the mixed economy, including R. H. Tawney, Anthony Crosland, and Andrew Shonfield were mostly associated with the British Labour Party, although similar views were expressed by Conservatives including Harold Macmillan. Critics of the mixed economy, including Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek, argued that there can be no lasting middle ground between economic planning and a market economy, and any move in the direction of socialist planning is an unintentional move toward what Hilaire Bloc called "the servile state".
Philosophy
The term "mixed economy" is used to describe economic systems which stray from the ideals of either the market, or various planned economies, and "mix" with elements of each other. As most political-economic ideologies are defined in an idealized sense, what is described rarelyâ€"if everâ€"exists in practice. Most would not consider it unreasonable to label an economy that, while not being a perfect representation, very closely resembles an ideal by applying the rubric that denominates that ideal. When a system in question, however, diverges to a significant extent from an idealized economic model or ideology, the task of identifying it can become problematic. Hence, the term "mixed economy" was coined. As it is unlikely that an economy will contain a perfectly even mix, mixed economies are usually noted as being skewed towards either private ownership or public ownership, toward capitalism or socialism, or toward a market economy or command economy in varying degrees.
Relation to forms of government and other ideas
The mixed economy is most commonly associated with social democratic policies or governments led by social democratic parties. However, given the broad range of economic systems that can be described by the term, most forms of government are consistent with some form of mixed economy. In contemporary uses, "social democracy" usually refers to a social corporatist arrangement and a welfare state in the context of a developed capitalist economy.
Authors John W. Houck and Oliver F. Williams of the University of Notre Dame have argued that Catholic social teaching naturally leads to a mixed economy in terms of policy. They referred back to Pope Paul VI's statement that government "should supply help to the members of the social body, but may never destroy or absorb them". They wrote that a socially just mixed economy involves labor, management, and the state working together through a pluralistic system that distributes economic power widely.
Historic examples
The American School (also known as the National System) is the economic philosophy that dominated United States national policies from the time of the American Civil War until the mid-twentieth century. It consisted of three core policy initiatives: protecting industry through high tariffs (1861â€"1932) (changing to subsidies and reciprocity from 1932â€"1970s), government investment in infrastructure through internal improvements, and a national bank to promote the growth of productive enterprises. During this period the United States grew into the largest economy in the world, surpassing the UK (though not the British Empire) by 1880.
Dirigisme is an economic policy initiated under Charles de Gaulle of France designating an economy where the government exerts strong directive influence. It involved state control of a minority of the industry, such as transportation, energy and telecommunication infrastructures, as well as various incentives for private corporations to merge or engage in certain projects. Under its influence France experienced what is called "Thirty Glorious Years" of profound economic growth.
Social market economy is the economic policy of modern Germany that steers a middle path between the goals of social democracy and capitalism within the framework of a private market economy, and aims at maintaining a balance between a high rate of economic growth, low inflation, low levels of unemployment, good working conditions, public welfare and public services by using state intervention. Under its influence Germany emerged from desolation and defeat to become an industrial giant within the European Union.
The concept of a mixed economy is not exclusive to capitalist economies (economies structured upon capital accumulation and privately owned, profit-seeking enterprises), and the phrase has been used to characterise some socialist economic systems. A number of proposals for socialist systems call for a mixture of different forms of enterprise ownership. For example, Alec Nove's conception of feasible socialism provides an outline for an economic system based on a combination of state-enterprises for large industries, worker and consumer cooperatives, private enterprises for small-scale operations, and individually owned enterprises.
The social democratic theorist Eduard Bernstein advocated a form of mixed economy, believing that a mixed system of public, cooperative and private enterprise would be necessary for a long period of time before capitalism would evolve of its own accord into socialism.
Criticism
Numerous economists have questioned the validity of the entire concept of a "mixed economy" when understood to be a mixture of socialism and capitalism.
In his magnum opus Human Action, Ludwig von Mises argued that there can be no mixture of capitalism and socialism - either market logic or economic planning must dominate an economy. Mises elaborated on this point by contending that, even if a capitalist market economy contained numerous state-run or nationalized enterprises, this would not make the economy "mixed" because the existence of such organizations does not alter the fundamental characteristics of the market economy. These publicly-owned enterprises would still be subject to market sovereignty, would have to acquire capital goods through markets, strive to maximize profits (or at the least try to minimize costs), and utilize monetary accounting for economic calculation.
Classical and orthodox Marxist theorists also dispute the viability of a mixed economy as a "middle ground" between socialism and capitalism. From this perspective, irrespective of enterprise ownership, either the capitalist law of value and accumulation of capital drives the economy, or conscious planning and non-monetary forms of valuation ultimately drive the economy. Therefore, extant "mixed economies" in the Western world, from the Great Depression onwards, are still functionally capitalist because they operate on the basis of capital accumulation.
Elements of a mixed economy
The elements of a mixed economy in Western countries have been demonstrated to include a variety of freedoms:
- to possess means of production (farms, factories, stores, etc.)
- to participate in managerial decisions (cooperative and participatory economics)
- to travel (needed to transport all the items in commerce, to make deals in person, for workers and owners to go to where needed)
- to buy (items for personal use, for resale; buy whole enterprises to make the organization that creates wealth a form of wealth itself)
- to sell (same as buy)
- to hire (to create organizations that create wealth)
- to fire (to maintain organizations that create wealth)
- to organize (private enterprise for profit, labor unions, workers' and professional associations, non-profit groups, religions, etc.)
- to communicate (free speech, newspapers, books, advertisements, make deals, create business partners, create markets)
- to protest peacefully (marches, petitions, sue the government, make laws friendly to profit making and workers alike, remove pointless inefficiencies to maximize wealth creation)
with tax-funded, subsidized, or state-owned factors of production, infrastructure, and services:
- libraries and other information services
- roads and other transportation services
- schools and other education services
- hospitals and other health services
- banks and other financial services
- telephone, mail and other communication services
- electricity and other energy services (e.g. oil, gas)
- water systems for drinking, agriculture, and waste disposal
- subsidies to agriculture and other businesses
- government-granted monopolies to otherwise private businesses
- legal assistance
- government-funded or state-run research and development agencies
and providing some autonomy over personal finances but including involuntary spending and investments such as transfer payments and other cash benefits such as:
- welfare for the poor
- social security for the aged and infirm
- mandatory insurance (example: automobile)
and restricted by various laws, regulations:
- environmental regulation (example: toxins in land, water, air)
- labor regulation including minimum wage laws
- consumer regulation (example: product safety)
- antitrust laws
- intellectual property laws
- incorporation laws
- protectionism
- import and export controls, such as tariffs and quotas
and taxes and fees written or enforced with manipulation of the economy in mind.
See also
Mixed economic systems
- American School
- Corporatist economy
- Dirigisme
- Distributism
- Nordic model
- Rhine capitalism
- Social corporatism
- Social market economy
- Socialist market economy
- State-sponsored capitalism
- Welfare capitalism
Further reading
Sources and notes
