Question

History of world economies

2. For two (2) of the following pairs of terms, briefly define each term then explain how the two terms are related to each other and/or to an issue from the interwar or the post WWII era (the relationship will account for one-third of your grade). 124 marks (a) Collectivization and the Soviet 5-year plans, (b) War economics and the welfare state: (c) The Marshall Plan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (d) M-form organizations and market-preserving federalism; (e) Neoliberalism and the second globalization period; (1) The red directors and the commanding heights of the economy:

both terms in one group

Answer 1

2

( a ) Collectivization and the Soviet 5-year plans

The Soviet Union implemented collectivization of its agriculture sector between 1928 and 1940, during the ascendancy of Joseph Stalin. Collectivization meant collective farming where multiple farmers run their holdings as joint enterprise.This type of collective is often an agricultural cooperative in which member-owners jointly engage in farming activities. The process by which farmland is aggregated is called collectivization.

It began during and was part of the first five-year plan. The Five-Year-Plans consisted of a series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union, beginning in the late 1920s. The Soviet state planning committee Gosplan developed these plans based on the theory of the productive forces that formed part of the ideology of the Communist Party for development of the Soviet economy.

( e )

Neoliberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of the ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism and free market capitalism, which constituted a paradigm shift away from the post-war Keynesian consensus that had lasted from 1945 to 1980.

It is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization, including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society.

Second globalization period marks the fall of Bretton Woods system, formation of WTO to increase world trade which indeed resulted in globalization to a great extent.