The Soviet reformers of the late 1980s saw the “market socialism” of the New Economic Policy of the 1920s as a model to emulate. But the NEP was laced with internal contradictions, and the failure to grasp this fact contributed to the Soviet collapse.

Jonathan J. Bean is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of History at Southern Illinois University.
Economic History and DevelopmentEconomic PolicyEconomistsEconomyPhilosophy and ReligionSocialism, Communism, and Collectivism
Other Independent Review articles by Jonathan J. Bean
Winter 2005/06 Adoption of State Lotteries in the United States, with a Closer Look at Illinois
Summer 2003 Shame of the Cities: Setting Aside Justice for the “Disadvantaged”
Fall 2000 “Burn, Baby, Burn”: Small Business in the Urban Riots of the 1960s
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