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Why did NEP fail?

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Harrison, Mark. (1980) Why did NEP fail? Economics of Planning , Vol.16 (No.2). pp. 57-67. ISSN 1573-9414

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00365571

Abstract

Why did NEP fail? I should like to distinguish three ways in which this question
has been answered, indicating why the third appears to me to be the most
satisfactory. In the first view, NEP was abandoned because it was inconsistent with
any further industrial development of a socialist kind, and its abandonment was
therefore a rational economic decision. In the second view, strongly reacting against
the first, NEP is seen as consistent with a wide variety of development patterns,
including the industrial development actually achieved in the inter-war Five Year
Plans. Therefore the abandonment of NEP had no strictly economic rationale, but
was an outcome of brute political struggles and the formation of the Stalinist
political system. In the third view, NEP is seen as inconsistent with the degree and
rate of industrialization actually undertaken from 1928 onwards, but contained the
possibility of alternative development patterns involving a lesser commitment to
industrial growth. In this case, the abandonment of NEP was neither simply rational
(according to the first view) nor irrational (according to the second), but was the
outcome of a political conflict over the course of Soviet economic development.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Soviet Union -- Economic conditions -- 20th century, Industrial productivity -- Soviet Union, Soviet Union -- Economic policy -- 20th century

Journal or Publication Title:

Economics of Planning

Publisher:

Springer New York LLC

ISSN:

1573-9414

Official Date:

January 1980

Dates:

Date	Event
January 1980	Published

Volume:

Vol.16

Number:

No.2

Page Range:

pp. 57-67

Identification Number:

10.1007/BF00365571

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Access rights to Published version:

Open Access

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