Socialist and centrally planned economies

In our last lesson we learned a very short definition of socialist economic system. In theory, the means of production belong to the people and they organize production through cooperative work. But this system hasn´t really been put into practice. In the so called socialist economies the means of production belonged to the State and economy was planned by a central organization, which decided on every aspect of production. This type of economy is called "centrally planned economy". Here you have a short Powerpoint presentation, prepared by Brian Coil, a Social Studies teacher of Templeton, Pennsylvania. In this presentation you can learn the problems centrally planned economies experienced. 

Difficulties with Centrally Planned Economies

View more presentations from Brian Coil.

In this cartoon you can observe one of the most common problems in the so defined socialist economic systems. Political leaders refused capitalism publicly, but they behaved as capitalists in private. 

Source: http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/37

After the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 the socialist economic system almost disappeared in the world. Here you have another cartoon about the countries where this system still "survives". 

Source: http://www.wku.edu/library/onlinexh/sanders/pages/world/communism.html