The Approximation of Economic Systems in East and West

Abstract

In this paper the attempt is made to summarize the changes in the contemporary economic systems.At present the three basic types of economic systems are in existence in east and west, i.e., guided capitalism, centralized socialism and market socialism.In the author's view, the market socialism, which has been founded in Yugoslavia and Hungary in the last thirty years, is becoming increasingly similar to the guided capitalism, particularly to the one with a national economic planning(e.g., in France, Japan, Belgium and the Netherlands, etc.).Because in the former, as in the latter, the market mechanism and the indicative economic planning have been institutionalized.But the market socialism will not assimilate completely to the guided capitalism, since in the former the public ownership is still dominant.In this sense, the approximation of the market socialism to the guided capitalism is not full-scale, but partial.We can't confirm that the soviet-type of centralized socialism(e.g., in the USSR, East Germany, etc.)is approximating to the guided capitalism.Because the centralized socialism has not undergone thorough changes at the systemic level in the past three decades.