ABSTRACT
The idea of consumer sovereignty, which is one of the philosophical pillars of the market edifice, was rejected by Marxist-Leninist theory and deliberately ignored by the practice of central planning. The result has been that all centrally planned economies are deficient in their ability to cater to consumer wants, quantitatively and qualitatively; that they are economies of chronic shortage, relatively adept at producing weapons and intermediate goods. An economy of chronic goods shortages is in terms of human transactions a tense, confrontational, rude society and one that is extremely susceptible to corrupt practices. In regard to laws and the legal order in the People’s Republic of China, three things are of interest from the standpoint of economic modernization: number of laws, model of law, and the rule of law. “The most valuable lesson one can draw from China’s rural economic reforms is that the farmers’ motivation comes from the reform of the ownership system.”
