Word | Def |
Bourgeoisie | middle class between aristocrats and workers. This term was used by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto to describe the capitalists, or factory owners, who exploit the worker, or the proletariat. In the Middle Ages, the bourgeoisie were members o |
Capitalism | economic system in which the means of production and the distribution of goods and wealth are controlled by individuals and operated for profit. Consumers have freedom of choice to buy or not to buy goods. |
Collectivization | system under communism in which many small farms were combined into large farms owned and operated by the government and worked by the peasants; started by Stalin in the late 1920s. |
Command economy | economic system in which central authority makes all the production decisions on what and how to produce goods. |
Communism | form of socialism proposed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; characterized by a classless society that supports a common ownership of the means of production and equal distribution of the products of society; no class struggle and the government will wit |
Economics | study of how people make a living; how goods and services are produced and distributed to satisfy people’s needs. |
Feudalism | political, economic, and social system developed in Europe and Japan during the 1100s in which land is controlled by the local lord, who owed allegiance to a higher lord of monarch. The lord allowed serfs to work the land in exchange for protection. |
Five-Year Plan | series of economic goals set by the government in either a communist or socialist system; instituted by Joseph Stalin in Russia in 1927 to build up industry and improve farm production. |
Free enterprise | economic system in which individuals and businesses have the freedom to operate for profit with little or no government intervention. |
Laissez-faire | economic policy stating that there should be a “hand off” or limited government involvement with private business |
Market economy | an economic system in which the laws of supply and demand and the price system influence the decisions of the consumer and producers of goods. |
Marxism | political and economic theory developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in support of an economic interpretation of history that contributed to a class struggle between the haves and have nots; belief that private ownership must be abolished in favor of |
Mercantilism | economic theory developed during the 17th and 18th centuries in which the colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country; wealth and power of a country based on exporting more than it imported through strict regulation of colonial trade. |
mixed economy | economic system combining government regulation of industries with private enterprise or capitalistic characteristics. |
planned economy | system in which the government determines what, how much, and who is allowed to receive the goods that are produced; used by the Soviet Union starting in 1927 and lasting until the 1980s |
privitization | returning or selling of government facilities to private individuals or investors. |
proletariat | term used by Marx and Engels to describe the industrial working class in capitalist countries. |
scarcity | fundamental economic problem describing limited resources combined with unlimited wants and needs. |
socialism | : system in which the government owns and operates all the essential means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods; society as a whole, not the individuals, owns all the property. |
traditional economy | economic system that meets the basic needs of its people through fishing, hunting, and gathering; basic economic decisions are made according to customs or habits. |