IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revaec/v34y2021i4d10.1007_s11138-021-00545-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socialism-in-practice was a nightmare, not Utopia: Ludwig von Mises’s critique of central planning and the fall of the Soviet Union

Author

Listed:
  • Richard M. Ebeling

    (The Citadel: Military College of South Carolina, Baker School of Business)

Abstract

Thirty years ago, in 1991, the Soviet Union formally came to an end as a political entity on the map of the world. It marked the conclusion of the dream of a new socialist system based on comprehensive government central planning for a better society. Soviet socialist reality was a nightmare of tyranny, economic chaos, along with political privilege and favoritism, which left everyday life for those living in the great socialist experiment one of poverty, corruption and despair. The reason why the socialist experiment in central planning was such a failure can be understood in terms of another anniversary, that being one hundred years since the publication of Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises’s, famous 1920 essay on “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth.” Mises demonstrated why it was inevitable and inescapable that socialism would fail and breed its negative side effects, due to the abolition of the economic institutions of private property, markets, and prices, without which a rational economic order is “impossible.” I recount some of the realities and absurdities of Soviet socialist daily life and its end based my travels in the Soviet Union in its last years. This paper is based on the Presidential Address delivered at the 2020 Society for the Development of Austrian Economics Annual Meeting.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard M. Ebeling, 2021. "Socialism-in-practice was a nightmare, not Utopia: Ludwig von Mises’s critique of central planning and the fall of the Soviet Union," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 431-448, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:34:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s11138-021-00545-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-021-00545-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11138-021-00545-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11138-021-00545-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Skousen, 1997. "The Perseverance of Paul Samuelson's Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 137-152, Spring.
    2. Richard M. Ebeling, 2003. "Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2661.
    3. Bruce Caldwell, 1997. "Hayek and Socialism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 1856-1890, December.
    4. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226089553 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Hayek, F. A., 1997. "Socialism and War," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226320588 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, June.
    6. Le Bon, Gustave, 1899. "The Psychology of Socialism," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number lebon1899.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefan Kolev & Nils Goldschmidt & Jan-Otmar Hesse, 2020. "Debating liberalism: Walter Eucken, F. A. Hayek and the early history of the Mont Pèlerin Society," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 433-463, December.
    2. Chris Grocott, 2017. "Friedrich Hayek's fleeting foray into 1940s colonial development," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 1085-1106, September.
    3. Richard M. Ebeling, 2020. "The Geneva connection, a liberal world order, and the Austrian economists," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 535-554, December.
    4. Viktor Vanberg, 2015. "Schumpeter and Mises as ‘Austrian Economists’," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 91-105, January.
    5. Samuel Hollander, 2002. "Economic Organization, Distribution And The Equality Issue: The Marx-Engels Perspective," Carleton Economic Papers 02-05, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    6. Mikayla Novak, 2021. "Social innovation and Austrian economics: Exploring the gains from intellectual trade," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 129-147, March.
    7. Makovi, Michael, 2016. "The Freedom of the Prices: Hayek's Road to Serfdom Reassessed," MPRA Paper 72071, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Zhihong Mo, 2012. "Decentralized planning in a market economy? On the nature of Coase’s research program," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 115-129, June.
    9. Yann Giraud, 2017. "The Contestable Marketplace of Ideas: Paul Samuelson’s Defense of Mainstream Economics through Textbook Making, 1967-1976," THEMA Working Papers 2017-19, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    10. Daniel Finn, 2003. "The moral ecology of markets: on the failure of the amoral defense of markets," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(2), pages 135-162.
    11. Matthias Aistleitner & Jakob Kapeller & Stefan Steinerberger, 2018. "Citation Patterns in Economics and Beyond," Working Papers Series 85, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    12. Mehrdad Vahabi, 1999. "From Walrasian General Equilibrium to Incomplete Contracts: Making Sense of Institutions," Post-Print halshs-03704424, HAL.
    13. Michael Makovi, 2015. "George Orwell as a Public Choice Economist," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 60(2), pages 183-208, September.
    14. Urban, Janina & Rommel, Florian, 2020. "German economics: Its current form and content," Working Paper Serie des Instituts für Ökonomie 56, Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG), Institut für Ökonomie.
    15. Sarah Skwire, 2024. "As If: Clueless About the Invisible Hand," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 39(Fall 2024), pages 21-39.
    16. José Joaquín Brunner, 2018. "Sobre las contradicciones culturales del liberalismo y sus malestares," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(150), pages 161-233.
    17. Michael Litschka & Kristoffel Grechenig, 2010. "Law by human intent or evolution? Some remarks on the Austrian school of economics’ role in the development of law and economics," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 57-79, February.
    18. Martin Kniepert, 2014. "Die (Neue) Institutionenökonomik als Ansatz für einen erweiterten, offeneren Zugang zur Volkswirtschaftslehre," Working Papers 552014, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Economic Development.
    19. David.W Versailles, 1999. "Évolution, individualisme et auto-organisation chez Hayek," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 35(1), pages 63-88.
    20. Roger E. Backhouse, 2014. "Hayek and Keynes," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 5, pages 94-115, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:34:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s11138-021-00545-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.