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Doi Moi

Doi moi

Đổi mới (renovation) is the name given to the economic reforms initiated by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the mid-1980s. As a result of doi moi many free-market enterprises were permitted (and, indeed, later encouraged) by the Communist Party of Vietnam; furthermore, the push to collectivize the industrial and agricultural operations of Vietnam, previously the focus of intense efforts by the Communist authorities, was essentially abandoned. Although not simultaneously accompanied by an articulated policy of increased social or political liberty (such as political glasnost accompanied economic perestroika in the Soviet Union), the Communist government has nonetheless tacitly permitted many personal freedoms much greater than in the past (apart from taboo issues such as criticism of the Communist regime) since the beginning of the doi moi era.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, or Vietnam (or Viet Nam), is a country in Southeast Asia. Situated in eastern Indochina, it borders countries such as China, Laos, Cambodia, as well as the South China Sea.

Terminology

The name of the country comes from the Vietnamese Việt Nam, which is in turn a reordering of Nam Việt, the name of an ancient kingdom from the ancestral Vietnamese that covered much of today's northern Vietnam.

History

Main article: History of Vietnam Vietnamese legends hold that native people populated and civilized the land more than 3,000 years ago. Chinese historical records tell of an indigenous people that existed about 2,500 years ago. Some historians, both in Asia and in the West, hold that the various peoples of today's Vietnam were brought together by a Qin Dynasty-era general who was fed up with the despotic rule of the Qin Shi Huang (first emperor of China proper) and escaped to the "southern Yue [Viet] mountains" to set up his own kingdom. He and his soldiers conquered the land and established a civilized society modeled after ancient Chinese customs. Interestingly -- and puzzlingly -- this Chinese general adopted the native language (which probably sounded similar to southern Chinese dialects anyway) and married local women, who gave birth to sons that inherited the kingdom. Whether this is indeed historically true or not is still subject to debate. What is known for sure is that for most of the period from 207 BC to the early 10^th century, it was under the rule of successive dynasties of China. Sporadic independence movements were attempted, but were quickly extinguished by the Chinese. In 939, the Vietnamese conclusively defeated Chinese forces at the Bach Dang River and gained independence. They gained complete autonomy a century later. For much of its history, Vietnam has been influenced more or less by its much bigger northern neighbour, China. However, during the rule of the Tran Dynasty, it defeated three Mongol attempts of invasion by the Yuan Dynasty which had conquered much of China proper, most Asian territories and parts of Europe. Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the Le Dynasty 1400s, especially with the emperor Le Thanh Tong. The independent period ended in the mid-19^th century, when the country was colonized by France. French rule continued until World War II, when Japan briefly occupied Vietnam and used the country as a base to launch attacks against the rest of Indochina and India. When the war ended, France attempted to re-establish control but ultimately failed, after they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. The Geneva Accords subsequently divided the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, separated by a demilitarized zone. During the Cold War, the North was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the South was supported by United States and other Western countries. Tensions quickly escalated into the Vietnam War. The war continued even after the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, which formally recognized the sovereignty of both sides. 1973 American troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. By April 30, 1975, communist forces overtook South Vietnam and by 1976, Vietnam was officially unified under the North Vietnamese government as The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. After reunification, political and economic conditions deteriorated to near-famine conditions. Millions of Vietnamese became boat people over the next two decades. In late 1978, the Cambodian people, with the support of the Vietnamese Army, removed the Khmer Rouge from power. Only one month later, however, partially in retaliation, China launched a short-lived incursion into Vietnam: the Sino-Vietnamese War. In 1986, the Communist Party implemented economic reforms known as đổi mới (renovation). During much of the 1990s, economic growth was rapid, and Vietnam reintegrated into the international community. It reestablished diplomatic relations with the United States in 1995. US President Bill Clinton visited Vietnam in 2000, and Prime minister Phan Văn Khải visited the United States in 2005.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Vietnam The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is governed through a highly centralized system dominated by the Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng Sản Việt Nam), which was formerly known as the Vietnamese Labor Party. The government is, in theory, independent from the party, but in practice it receives most of its directives from the party. Although there has been some effort to discourage membership in overlapping party and state positions, this practice continues. Senior Politburo members (Trần Đức Lương, Phan Văn Khải, Nguyễn Văn An, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Lê Hồng Anh and Phạm Văn Trà) concurrently hold high positions in the government. There are no legal opposition parties in Vietnam, although a number of opposition groups do exist scattered overseas among exile communities within countries such as France and the United States. These communities have supported demonstrations and civil disobedience against the government. The most prominent are the Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League, People's Action Party of Viet Nam, Montagnard Foundation Inc. and the Government of Free Vietnam. The Government of Free Vietnam has claimed responsibility for a number of guerilla raids into Vietnam, which the government has denounced as terrorism. Former political parties include the nationalist Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang of Nguyen Thai Hoc, the Can Lao party of the Ngô Đình Diệm government and the Viet Nam Duy Tan Hoi of Phan Bội Châu during the colonial period. Vietnam is a member of the United Nations, La Francophonie, ASEAN, and APEC and has applied for membership to the World Trade Organization.

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Vietnam Vietnam's capital (thủ đô, singular and plural) is Hanoi (Hà Nội). There are also four municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc Trung ương, singular and plural) existing at provincial level: Cần Thơ, Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng, and Hồ Chí Minh City (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh). Hồ Chí Minh City was formerly known as Saigon. Besides the five cities, the country is divided into fifty-nine provinces (tỉnh, singular and plural): An Giang, Bắc Giang, Bắc Cạn, Bạc Liêu, Bắc Ninh, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Bến Tre, Bình Định, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Bình Thuận, Cà Mau, Cao Bằng, Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Điện Biên, Đồng Nai, Đồng Tháp, Gia Lai, Hà Giang, Hải Dương, Hà Nam, Hà Tây, Hà Tĩnh, Hòa Bình, Hậu Giang, Hưng Yên, Khánh Hòa, Kiên Giang, Kon Tum, Lai Châu, Lâm Đồng, Lạng Sơn, Lào Cai, Long An, Nam Định, Nghệ An, Ninh Bình, Ninh Thuận, Phú Thọ, Phú Yên, Quảng Bình, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Quảng Ninh, Quảng Trị, Sóc Trăng, Sơn La, Tây Ninh, Thái Bình, Thái Nguyên, Thanh Hóa, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Tiền Giang, Trà Vinh, Tuyên Quang, Vĩnh Long, Vĩnh Phúc, Yên Bái.

Geography

Yên Bái Main article: Geography of Vietnam The country is approximately 331,688 square kilometers (128,066 mi²) in area, which is slightly larger than New Mexico and slightly smaller than Germany. The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20 percent. Mountains account for 40 percent, hills 40 percent, and forests 75 percent. The northern part of the country consists of highlands and the Red River Delta. Phan Xi Păng, located in Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 m (10,312 ft). The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Dai Truong Son (central mountains) with high plateaus, and the Mekong River Delta. The climate is tropical and monsoonal; humidity averages 84 percent throughout the year. Annual rainfall ranges from 120 to 300 centimetres (47 to 118 inches), and annual temperatures vary between 5°C (41°F) and 37°C (99°F). Land boundaries: Total: 4,639 km (2,883 mi) Border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km (763 mi), China 1,281 km (796 mi), Laos 2,130 m (1,324 mi)

Economy

Main article: Economy of Vietnam In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam formally abandoned Marxist economic planning and began introducing market elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "đổi mới" ("Renovation"). In many ways, this followed the Chinese model and achieved similar results. On the one hand, Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2002, making it the world's second-fastest growing economy. Simultaneously, investment grew three-fold and domestic savings quintupled. On the other hand, urban unemployment has been rising steadily in recent years due to high numbers of migration from the countryside to the cities, and rural unemployment, estimated to be up to 35% during nonharvest periods, is already at critical levels. Layoffs in the state sector and foreign-invested enterprises combined with the lasting effects of a previous military demobilization further exacerbated the unemployment situation. The country is attempting to become a member of the WTO. Vietnam, however, is still a relatively poor country with GDP of US$227.2 billion (est., 2004). This translates to US$2700 per capita. Inflation rate is estimated at 14% per year in 2004. This figure has been scaled down by the Government to 9.5% per annum to avoid the ‘double digit’ classification. The spending power of the public has noticeably increased. The reason lies in the high property prices. In Hanoi, the capital, property prices can be as high as those in Tokyo or New York. This has amazed many people because GDP per capita of this city is around US$1,000 per annum. The booming prices have given the poor land owners the opportunity to sell their homes for inflated prices. Corruption, bribery and embezzlement committed by many government officials have pushed property prices even higher, as real estate investment is a popular form of money laundering. Tourism has become an increasingly important industry in Vietnam. Many of the over 3 million annual visitors are Vietnam war veterans.

Demographics

Vietnam war veterans] Main article: Demographics of Vietnam The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 distinct ethnic groups. The majority ethnic Vietnamese, also called Viet or Kinh, make up about 86 percent of the nation's population. They are concentrated largely in the alluvial deltas and in the coastal plains and have little in common with the minority peoples of the highlands, whom they have historically regarded as hostile and barbaric. A homogenous social group, the Viet exert influence on national life through their control of political and economic affairs and their role as purveyors of the dominant culture. By contrast, the ethnic minorities, except for the Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) and the Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese), are found mostly in the highlands that cover two-thirds of the national territory.

Religions

Han Chinese] According to the 1999 census, eighty percent of Vietnamese subscribe to no religion. The remainder are predominantly Confucian and Mahayana Buddhist (esp. Mainstream Pure Land schools and Zen-inspired syncretists); with Roman Catholic, Protestant, Cao Đài, and Hoa Hao minorities. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church. Membership to Sunni and Bashi Islam are usually accredited to the ethnic Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents to Islam in the southwest.

Minorities

According to official figures from the 1999 census of Vietnam, the largest ethnic minorities of Vietnam were: #Tày: 1,477,514 people # Thái (Thailand): 1,328,725 # : 1,137,515 # Khmer Krom: 1,055,174 # Hoa (Chinese): 862,371 The Tay people live primarily in the mountains and foothills of northern Vietnam. Their language is a member of the Tai languages, belonging to the Central Tai subgroup and closely related to the Zhuang language of southern China. Thái is a name used by Vietnamese authorities for a group of people also from the mountainous northern region of Vietnam and whom western linguists say actually speak separate languages: Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, Tai Hang Tong, Tày Tac, and Tai Thanh. All these languages are closely related and belong to the Southwestern Tai subgroup of the Tai languages. This official "Thái" ethnicity should not be confused with the Thai people of Thailand. The Thai people of Thailand speak languages belonging to the Lao-Phutai branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup, while the "Thái" of Vietnam speak languages belonging to the East Central branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup. Although the Thái ethnicity is officially recognized in Vietnam, western linguistics do not recognize it and prefer to classify Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, etc., as separate ethnic groups, in which case the minority moves to second largest minority of Vietnam, Khmer Krom move to third position, and Hoa to fourth position. The live in the mountains of north central Vietnam and speak a Mon-Khmer language closely related to the Vietnamese language. The Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) live in the fertile delta of the Mekong River in southern Vietnam and are ethnically the same as the Khmer people who make up the majority of the population of Cambodia. There is no consensus on the exact number of Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) living in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government reported 1,055,174 Khmer Krom at the 1999 census. Other estimates put the size of the Khmer Krom population at around 7 million (almost half as numerous as the Khmer living in Cambodia), although this is denied by the Vietnamese government. The Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese) are mainly lowlanders and, more specifically, urban dwellers. They speak predominantly Cantonese (known to the Vietnamese as Quảng Đông), but there are also speakers of Hakka (Khách Gia), Hokkien/Fujian (Phúc Kiến), Chaozhou, etc. Up to the 1979 Vietnamese census, the Hoa were the largest minority of Vietnam. However, since the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam in 1975 many Hoa left Vietnam, especially in the 1980s, so that at the 1999 census the Hoa were only the fifth largest minority (or the fourth largest if the Thái are not considered as an homogenous ethnic group). Beyond these five largest ethnic minorities, there are 48 other minorities officially recognized by the Vietnamese government, giving a total of 53 minorities altogether. Many of these 53 minority groups only have a few thousand members or so. Vietnam also has a small number of racial Eurasians, people of Asian and Caucasian (white) parentage. Most of them are descendants of Vietnamese people mixed with either early French settlers or white American soldiers and personnel (or both), during the colonial period and Vietnam War. There are some who are racially mixed with blacks as well, another product during the Vietnam War from American soldiers. Mixed race individuals face the most discrimination in Vietnamese society and government, especially ones who are product of American soldiers (white or black) from the Vietnam War. Officially, the ethnic minorities are referred to as "national minorities". The French used the name Montagnard (plural Montagnards, meaning "mountain people") to call all the minorities (except the Khmer Krom and the Hoa), no matter what their actual language. The name Montagnard is still sometimes used today. Sometimes, the name Montagnard is used specifically for the ethnic group. Human Rights NGOs point out the Vietnamese government's poor record with respect to ethnic minorities. In particular, the large Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) minority of southern Vietnam is denied elementary human rights in an effort by the Vietnamese government to Vietnamize the Khmer Krom, or force them to leave their native land and relocate to Cambodia. The Vietnamese government is afraid that the large native Khmer Krom population in the Mekong delta could allow Cambodia to officially claim back the fertile areas of the delta that were annexed by Vietnam more than 200 years ago. On the other hand, some in the Vietnamese government still pursue the centuries old policy of colonizing Khmer land, and it was reported that in the 1980s and 1990s some local Vietnamese officials have pushed the Cambodian-Vietnamese border several kilometers inside Cambodian territory, annexing tens of Cambodian villages, in violation of international treaties, thus further increasing the ethnic Khmer population inside Vietnam. Further north, there have been reports of tensions with the Tày people due to the government sponsored relocation of ethnic Vietnamese from the lowlands to the highlands inhabited by the Tày and other minorities. Protests and demonstrations by highland minorities have been reported.

Percentage of ethnic Vietnamese

According to the 1999 census, ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) numbered 65,795,718 and thus accounted for 86.2% of the total population of Vietnam. In terms of land area, the ethnic Vietnamese inhabit a little less than half of Vietnam, while the ethnic minorities inhabit the majority of Vietnam's land (albeit the least fertile parts of the country). The birth rate of the ethnic Vietnamese (and also the Hoa), which historically has been very high, decreased significantly since the 1980s and is now reaching much lower levels, comparable to the birth rates in Thailand or Malaysia. The birth rate of the minorities is still very high, comparable to birth rates in Cambodia or Laos. As a result, the ethnic minorities are now growing at a faster rate than the ethnic Vietnamese, which means that the percentage of ethnic Vietnamese in the total population is slowly decreasing year after year. According to official figures, at the 1979 census the ethnic Vietnamese accounted for 87.4% of the total population. The figure was down to 86.9% at the 1989 census, and 86.2% at the 1999 census.

Languages

According to official figures, 86.2% of the population speak Vietnamese as a native tongue. Various other languages are spoken by the several minority groups in Vietnam. The most spoken languages are: Tày (1.5 million), Muong (1.2 million), Khmer (1.05 million), Cantonese (870,000, this figure also includes speakers of other Chinese dialects), Nung (860,000), Hmong (790,000), and Tai Dam (700,000). French, a legacy of colonial rule, is spoken by some (mostly older) Vietnamese as a second language. Russian- and to a much lesser extent Czech or Polish- is often known among "baby-boomers" whose families had ties with the Soviet bloc. In recent years, English has become a more popular language to learn and is increasingly used in business, among other things. See also: List of ethnic groups in Vietnam

Culture

Main article: Culture of Vietnam In its early history, Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters. In the 16th century, the Vietnamese developed their own set of characters called Chữ Nôm. The celebrated epic Đoạn trường tân thanh (or Truyện Kiều) by Nguyễn Du is written in Chữ Nôm. During the French colonial period, Quốc Ngữ, the romanized Vietnamese alphabet representation of spoken Vietnamese, became popular and brought literacy to the masses. This had a profound effect on the political power in the country. Due to Vietnam's long association with China, Vietnamese culture remains strongly Confucian with its emphasis on familial duty and harmony. Education is highly prized. Historically, passing the imperial Mandarin exams was the only means for ambitious Vietnamese to socially advance themselves. In the modern era, Vietnamese are trying to reconcile traditional culture with Western ideas of individual freedom, distrust of authority, and consumer culture. The majority of Vietnamese are adherents to Mahayana Buddhism, influenced by Confucianism and Daoism, and with a strong emphasis on ancestor worship. Some critics say that the Vietnamese' second religion is superstition and fatalism, brought on by the decades of war. Vietnam's cuisine and music have three distinct flavors, related to Vietnam's three regions: Bac or North, Trung or Central, and Nam or South. Northern classical music is Vietnam's oldest and is traditionally more formal. Vietnamese classical music can be traced to the Mongol invasions, when the Vietnamese captured a Chinese opera troupe. Central classical music shows the influences of Champa culture with its melancholic melodies. Southern music exudes a lively laissez faire attitude, probably due to the region's relative prosperity. Vietnamese cuisine is based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavor is sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), and flavored by a variety of mints. See also:
- Cuisine of Vietnam
- Music of Vietnam

Miscellaneous topics

- Communications in Vietnam
- Foreign relations of Vietnam
- Holidays in Vietnam
- List of Vietnam-related topics
- List of Vietnamese companies
- Military of Vietnam
- Transportation in Vietnam

External links

- [http://www.cpv.org.vn/index_e.html Communist Party of Vietnam]: the sole legal party
- [http://www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx?tabid=491 General Statistics Office]
- [http://www.mofa.gov.vn/en/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
- [http://www.mofa.gov.vn/en/tt_vietnam/ Information about Vietnam]
- [http://www.na.gov.vn/english/index.html National Assembly]: The Vietnamese legislative body
- [http://www.photo.com.vn Photos of Vietnam]
- [http://www.vietfirm.com Vietnam web hosting]
- [http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/ Pictures of Vietnam]
- [http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ Vietnam Net]: Largest Vietnamese portal
- [http://www.vietnamtourism.com/index/e_index.asp Vietnam Tourism]
- [http://www.asinah.org/travel-guides/vietnam.html Vietnam Travel Guide]
- [http://www.vnexpress.net/ VnExpress]: VietNam News Daily
- [http://www.vov.org.vn/Defaultv.htm VOV News]: National radio broadcaster
- [http://www.all.com.vn Vietnam Business Directory]
- [http://sticky-rice.com/essays.html Articles/Photos of Vietnam]
- [http://www.willgoto.com/398/1/categories.aspx Travel guide to Vietnam]
- [http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/ChinaVietnamCambodia/Vietnam/?nosplash=true Pictures of Vietnam] Backpacker's pictures from a trip through Vietnam
- [http://www.artpoetryfiction.com/art/sang/index.html Tran Thanh Sang]: Award Winning Vietnamese Photographer .
- [http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/preparatory-process/national-reports/Vietnam-report.pdf National Report on Disaster Reduction in Vietnam] Category:ASEAN member states Category:Southeast Asian countries Category:Communist states zh-min-nan:Oa̍t-lâm ko:베트남 ms:Vietnam ja:ベトナム simple:Vietnam th:ประเทศเวียดนาม

Collectivization

Collective farming is an organizational unit in agriculture in which peasants are not paid wages, but rather receive a share of the farm's net output. The process of establishing collective farms is called collectivization. The Soviet Union undertook the world's first campaign of mass collectivization in 1929–1933. Soviet peasants in collective farms received a type of dividend after compulsory deliveries were made to the state. However, this was an example of forced collectivization, and should not be confused with voluntary collectivization, such as the one that takes place in a Kibbutz.

Soviet Union

Main article: Collectivisation in the USSR. In the Soviet Union, collectivization was introduced in the late 1920s as a scheme to boost agricultural production through the organization of land and labor into collectives called collective farms (kolkhozes) and state farms (sovkhozes). At the same time, it was argued that collectivization would free poor peasants from economic servitude under the kulaks. It was hoped that the goals of collectivization could be achieved voluntarily, but when the new farms failed to attract the number of peasants hoped, the government blamed the oppression of the kulaks and resorted to forceful implementation of the plan. Due to unreasonably high government quotas, farmers often got far less for their labor than they did before collectivization, and some refused to work. In many cases, the immediate effect of collectivization was to reduce grain output and almost halve livestock, thus producing major famines in 1932–33.¹ In one extreme episode, several million peasants, mainly in Ukraine, died in a famine during the drought of 1932-1933 after Stalin forced the peasants into the collectives (this famine is known in Ukraine as Holodomor). It was not until 1940 that agricultural production finally surpassed its pre-collectivization levels.

Other communist countries

Collective farming has been implemented in nearly all communist states, with varying degrees of success.

Czechoslovakia (1948-89)

Land reforms after World War I distributed most of the land to peasants and created large groups of relatively well-to-do farmers (though village poor still existed). These groups showed no support for communist ideals. After the communist takeover of power in 1948 farms started to be collectivised, mostly under threat of sanctions. The most obstinate farmers were persecuted and imprisoned. The most common form of collectivization was agricultural cooperative (in Czech Jednotné zemědělské družstvo, JZD). Many early cooperatives collapsed and were recreated again. Their productivity was low, they provided tiny salaries and no pensions and failed to create a sense of collective ownership (small scale pilfering was common). Food became scarce. Seeing the massive outflow of people from agriculture into cities, the government started to massively subsidise the cooperatives in order to make the standard of living of farmers equal to that of city inhabitants (this was the long term official policy of the government). Funds, machinery and fertilizers were provided, young people from villages were forced to study agriculture, and students were regularly sent (mandatorily) to help in cooperatives. Subsidies and constant pressure destroyed the remaining private farmers (only a handful of them remained after 1960s). Living style of villagers had eventually reached level of cities and village poor was eliminated. Czechoslovakia was again able to produce enough of food for its citizens. Price of this success was huge waste of resources - the cooperatives had no motivation to improve efficiency, every piece of land got cultivated regardless of expense involved and the soil got heavily polluted with chemicals. Intensive use of heavy machinery damaged topsoil. The cooperatives were infamous for overemployment. In the late 1980s economy of Czechoslovakia stagnated and the state owned companies were unable to deal with advent of modern technologies. Few agricultural companies (where the rules were less strict than in state companies) used this situation and started to provide high tech product. For example: the only way to buy a PC compatible computer in late 1980s was to get it (for extremely high price) from one agricultural company acting as reseller. After fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia (1989) subsidies to agriculture were stopped, to devastating effect. Most of cooperatives had problems to compete with technologically advanced foreign competition and were unable to obtain investment to improve their situation. Quite a large percentage of them had collapsed, the others remain typically insufficiently funded, lacking competent management, without new machinery and living from day to day. Employment in agricultural sector had dropped significantly (from cca 3% of population to cca 1%). Contrary of expectations not many people decided to be private farmers - competition is heavy, access to investment hard and only few are willing to work very hard on a farm.

North Korea

While Hungary arguably provides the best positive example of collective farming in a communist state, North Korea provides its negative counterpart. In the late 1990s, the collective farming system collapsed under the strain of droughts. Estimates of deaths due to starvation ranged into the millions, although the government did not allow outside observers to survey the extent of the famine. Aggravating the severity of the famine, the government diverted international relief supplies to its armed forces.

Israel

Collective farming (of the completely voluntary kind) was also implemented in Kibbutzim as a unique combination of Zionism and socialism.

External links

- [http://www.scottreid.com/stalin.htm Stalin and Collectivization, by Scott J. Reid]
- [http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/node67.html "The Collectivization 'Genocide'", in Another View of Stalin, by Ludo Martens]

References

¹Eric Hobsbawm: Age of Extremes, 1994
²FAO production, 1986, FAO Trade vol. 40, 1986 Category:Agriculture

Perestroika

Perestroika (Перестро́йка) is the Russian word (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Its literal meaning is "restructuring", which refers to restructuring of the Soviet economy.

The perestroika program

During the initial period (1985-1986) of Mikhail Gorbachev's being in power, he modified central planning without making truly fundamental changes. Gorbachev and his team of economic advisers then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as perestroika (economic restructuring). At the June 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses," which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union. In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet passed the Law on State Enterprises. The law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill state orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. Enterprises bought inputs from suppliers at negotiated contract prices. Under the law, enterprises became self-financing; that is, they had to cover expenses (wages, taxes, supplies, and debt service) through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy. Finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers' collectives. Gosplan's (Государственный комитет по планированию, State Committee for Planning) responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, not to formulate detailed production plans. The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev regime. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene. Gorbachev brought perestroika to the Soviet Union's foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His program virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations. It permitted the ministries of the various industrial and agricultural branches to conduct foreign trade in sectors under their responsibility rather than having to operate indirectly through the bureaucracy of trade ministry organizations. In addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime: the lack of contact between Soviet end users and suppliers and their foreign partners. The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the Soviet Joint Venture Law, which went into effect in June 1987, limited foreign shares of a Soviet venture to 49 percent and required that Soviet citizens occupy the positions of chairman and general manager. After potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, and a potentially large domestic market. The foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and, in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality. Although they were bold in the context of Soviet history, Gorbachev's attempts at economic reform were not radical enough to restart the country's chronically sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms made some inroads in decentralization, but Gorbachev and his team left intact most of the fundamental elements of the Stalinist system--price controls, inconvertibility of the ruble, exclusion of private property ownership, and the government monopoly over most means of production. By 1990 the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies continued. Tax revenues declined because revenues from the sales of vodka plummeted during the anti-alcohol campaign and because republic and local governments withheld tax revenues from the central government under the growing spirit of regional autonomy. The elimination of central control over production decisions, especially in the consumer goods sector, led to the breakdown in traditional supplier-producer relationships without contributing to the formation of new ones. Thus, instead of streamlining the system, Gorbachev's decentralization caused new production bottlenecks.

Unforeseen results of reform

Gorbachev's new system bore the characteristics of neither central planning nor a market economy. Instead, the Soviet economy went from stagnation to deterioration. At the end of 1991, when the union officially dissolved, the national economy was in a virtual tailspin. In 1991 Soviet GDP had declined by 17 percent and was declining at an accelerating rate. Overt inflation was becoming a major problem. Between 1990 and 1991, retail prices in the Soviet Union increased 140 percent. Under these conditions, the general quality of life for Soviet consumers deteriorated. Consumers traditionally faced shortages of durable goods, but under Gorbachev, food, clothes, and other basic necessities were in short supply. Fueled by the liberalized atmosphere of Gorbachev's glasnost and by the general improvement in information access in the late 1980s, public dissatisfaction with economic conditions was much more overt than ever before in the Soviet period. The foreign-trade sector of the Soviet economy also showed signs of deterioration. The total Soviet hard-currency debt increased appreciably, and the Soviet Union, which had established an impeccable record for debt repayment in earlier decades, had accumulated sizable arrears by 1990. In sum, the Soviet Union left a legacy of economic inefficiency and deterioration to the fifteen constituent republics after its breakup in December 1991. Arguably, the shortcomings of the Gorbachev reforms had contributed to the economic decline and eventual destruction of the Soviet Union, leaving Russia and the other successor states to pick up the pieces and to try to mold market economies. At the same time, the Gorbachev programs did start Russia on the precarious road to full-scale economic reform.

External link

- [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-elb1.html Yakovlev on perestroika] Category:Soviet phraseology Category:Economy of the Soviet Union Category:History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia ko:페레스트로이카 ja:ペレストロイカ

Perestroika

The perestroika program

Unforeseen results of reform

External link

Socialism with Chinese characteristics

:This article is about the term itself and its relationships. For its implementation and effects see Economy of the People's Republic of China and Chinese economic reform. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (Chinese: 具有中国特色的社会主义 pinyin: Jùyǒu Zhōngguó tèsè de shèhuìzhǔyì) is an official term for the economy of the People's Republic of China. The PRC has gradually made a transition to a system in which more and more resource allocations are made on the basis of prices, and in which a higher and higher share of productive resources are in private hands. The PRC government, however, continues to maintain that it has not abandoned Marxism. Therefore, the PRC radically redefined many of the terms and concepts of Marxist theory to justify its new economic system. The ruling Chinese Communist Party has argued that socialism is not incompatible with economic policies such as some private ownership of the means of production and free markets. In current Chinese Communist thinking, the PRC is in the primary stage of socialism, and this redefinition allows the PRC to undertake just about any economic policy to attract the foreign capital necessary to develop into an industrialized nation.

Details

Although it appeared as late as the early 1990s that the government intended to retain ownership of heavy industry, entry, and infrastructure, they were ultimately privatized for a number of reasons. The most important was that with pricing reform in the late 1980s, most state owned enterprises became highly unprofitable and the government decided to close or sell them off. Thus, the PRC gradually made a transition to a system in which all resource allocations are made on the basis of prices, and in which most of the means of production are in private hands, prompting many people both communist and capitalist to wonder how the PRC system differs from outright capitalism, except for the fact that property rights of poorer private citzens are nonexistant. The PRC government, however, continues to maintain that it has not abandoned Marxism, since officially abandoning Marxism would undermine the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, the PRC radically redefined many of the terms and concepts of Marxist theory to justify its new economic system. In Marxist theory, history progresses through a number of stages from slave society to feudal society to capitalist society to socialist society to communist society. In Maoist theory, the revolution of 1949 was a change from feudalism to socialism, and this change is considered to be irreversible. As a result, the Chinese Communist Party has been able to redefine socialism and to argue that socialism is not incompatible with economic policies such as private ownership of the means of production, free markets, neoliberal globalization, or anything else for that matter. In essence, they argue that socialism means anything that happened (or happens, or will happen) from the 1949 revolution onwards. In current Chinese Communist thinking, the PRC is in the primary stage of socialism, and this redefinition allows the PRC to undertake just about any economic policy it wants without running into theoretical difficulties or without undermining its justification for existence. However, this solution presents another problem. If the Chinese Communist Party does not use any theory and not even a set of general guidelines for how a socialist system should look like, then how does it make its economic decisions? Their answer is to use Deng Xiaoping's dictum seek truth from facts and just do whatever seems to work. In an international context, PRC statesmen usually follow this line: "China respects the diversity of the world. There are nearly 200 countries in the world with a population of more than 5 billion. There should not and cannot be only one mode of development, one concept of values and only one type of social system in the world due to differences in historical conditions, social systems, development levels, cultural traditions and concepts of values." There is also one final problem with which the Chinese Communist Party is still trying to deal: Marxism claims to be an exact, well-defined scientific theory of social and economic development, while the PRC reformulation of Marxism clearly lacks these qualities. It is difficult for the PRC government to build its legitimacy on a theory that amounts to "do anything that seems good". Therefore, it has moved toward Chinese nationalism as a basis for its legitimacy, and, for that matter, as an emotional motivator as well. In a dinner with Henry Kissinger, Deng joked with him that the pig being served (Kissinger is Jewish) was not really pig at all, but "Chinese Duck", so it was O.K. for him to eat it. So, too, Deng called his new system Socialism with Chinese characteristics so it wouldn't really be capitalism and would be O.K. for the PRC to adopt.

Sources

- [http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/China/Deng/Building.htm Deng Xiaoping on BUILD SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS on June 30, 1984] "What is socialism and what is Marxism? We were not quite clear about this in the past. Marxism attaches utmost importance to developing the productive forces. We have said that socialism is the primary stage of communism and that at the advanced stage the principle of from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs will be applied. This calls for highly developed productive forces and an overwhelming abundance of material wealth. Therefore, the fundamental task for the socialist stage is to develop the productive forces. The superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system. As they develop, the people's material and cultural life will constantly improve. One of our shortcomings after the founding of the People's Republic was that we didn't pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism."
- [http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/36/1/1/ Our Way: Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics By Wang Yu on behalf of the Communist Party of China (2004 January)] "production stagnated for a long time. There was little improvement in people’s quality of life, and China’s gap with developed economies widened further. All of this made Chinese Communists ask themselves time and again the following questions: Where on earth was the superiority of socialism? Was socialism rich or poor? What is revolution and what was its purpose? The theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, which took the development of the productive forces as its fundamental task, came into being amid and as a result of these reflections and reviews."
- [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgabriel/economics/china-essays/8.html Technological Determinism & Socialism with Chinese Characteristics] "new economic development strategy based upon decentralization of control over the state owned enterprise sector, expanded market transactions to replace command and control allocation, dismantling of the rural commune system (completed in 1985), increased use of material incentives in workplaces, and ultimately, upon the modernization of the Chinese economic infrastructure (as well as the military infrastructure). This last aspect of their strategy represents more than a mere objective. Modernization represents the mission of the pragmatists. Deng Xiaoping rejected the Maoist tendency to forswear the technological trappings of the so-called West (including soft technology in the form of social relationships) and embraced the idea that modernity required copying many of the traits of the Western capitalist nations."
- [http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Petersen0106.htm Necessary Chinese Illusions : Socialism with Chinese Characteristics] "Chinese professor Han Deqiang in his paper “Chinese Cultural Revolution: Failure and Theoretical Originality” examined the demise of communism in China. Han detailed how from its very beginning the communist revolutionary government had been infiltrated by a capitalist faction which had established itself within the bureaucracy. Prominent among the bureaucrats was Deng Xiaoping."

Category:Political economy

Category:Interdisciplinary fields Category:political science Category:Economics Category:Sociology ko:분류:정치경제학

Category:History of Vietnam

Category:Vietnam Vietnam ko:분류:베트남의 역사 ja:Category:ベトナムの歴史

Logisk

Logik er en filosofisk disciplin der undersøger formelle argumenters "gyldighed" - om de er logisk konsistente i forhold til de axiomer eller regler argumentet hviler på. Om et argument er "holdbart", dvs. hvad man eventuelt kunne udlede fra dets struktur, er i "formel logisk" sammenhæng ikke relevant. Det er et "filosofisk logisk" interesseområde. Deraf skelnen mellem formel og filosofisk logik. (Et eksempel kunne være om en sætning kan være andet end KUN sand og falsk som det hævdes i klassisk logik, men også have andre sandhedsværdier, se fuzzy logic). Historisk stammer logikken fra Aristoteles. Hans syllogismer var standard helt op til 1879, hvor Gottlob Frege udgav sin Begriffsschrift, en milepæl i filosofien og moderne logik, matematik og computervidenskab. Ordet 'logik' kommer fra græsk logos = sprog, ord, system, samling (eksempelvis biologi = bios + logos).

Litteratur

- Graham Priest, Logic: a very short introduction to logic, Oxford University Press, 2000. Her finder du også en glimrende bibliografi, hvis du vil vide endnu mere.
- Se også den engelske wikipedia for gode artikler om prædikatslogik og Aristotelisk logik.
- [http://www.gutenberg.net Gutenberg.net], her kan du frit downloade mange af de klassiske filosofiske værker.