Economic Regulation Through Shortage

In an age where contemporary ideological conflicts concerning the alleged economic superiority of the economies of the Soviet-type over traditional capitalist systems have come to be increasingly questioned, there has arisen over the years, a growing need for a critical appreciation of the features (e.g., mode of regulation, systemic constraints of large scale centralised planning, forms of ownership, economic behaviour, etc'), that distinguish the economies of the Soviet-type from Western capitalist systems. While the essential features of the capitalist system-appear familiar and easily identifiable, the Soviet economic system has long been viewed as a bizarre spectre characterised by the “universal reign of economic irrationality" - something that seems to forever elude any form of recognisable analysis.