Synopsis
Nove argues that a workable socialism must accept markets, prices, and a mix of ownership forms, rejecting comprehensive central planning as unworkable.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workA socialism that abolishes markets and tries to plan everything from the center cannot work; a feasible socialism must combine social ownership with real markets and prices.
It confronts socialists with the information and coordination problems that doomed comprehensive planning.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Friedrich Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society.
Reading note
Read it as a sympathetic socialist's hard-headed reckoning with the failures of the Soviet planning model.
Best paired with
Friedrich Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society
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