so many globe-watchers, socialism — social control of means of production as opposed to free operation of market forces — appears to have lost its relevance. With the disintegration of U.S.S.R., the overthrow of dictatorial communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the growing privatisation of economy in People's Republic of China, there is no major country in the world which stands for unadulterated or doctrinaire socialism.
Even in India, where the constitution was amended years ago to insert the word 'socialistic' in the preamble to the constitution to proclaim that bringing about a socialistic pattern of society was the ultimate aim Of the India State, recent spate of decontrol, liberalisation and privatisation demonstrates a dominant trend which is antithetical to socialism. In these circumstances, is it any exaggeration toformally proclaim that socialism is dead ? Doctrinaire socialism refers to the politico-economic system in which, means of production are owned not by private individuals but by society.
The latter decides how much of commodities is to be produced and when the things should be produced. The society also fixes the price and determines the quota for consumption by different individuals or organisations. In the initial stages of socialism, the state makes all the decisions on behalf of the society. Under a Socialistic system of economy, every citizen works according to his capacity and gets according to his work done. This system permits certain inequality Of incomes unlike that prevails in communism
where everyone works according to his capacity and gets according to his needs. Although many socialistic practices have prevailed and still prevail in some countries associated with capitalism such as U.K., Sweden and France, wheremany industries and public utilities like coal, railways, tele-communication have been nationalised from time to time, we will confine ourselves to those countries exclusively which had accepted socialism as national creed in preference to free-market economy. These countries would not allow market forces of supply and demand todetermine level of production or prices, but would centrally control the level of production, price and distribution of commodities throughout the country. China before Deng
