ABSTRACT
The industrialization strategy after 1979 was restricted by the new government's decision to establish a mixed economy. To date, mixed economies in transition to a socialism like that in Nicaragua had always been a temporary phenomenon. The Nicaraguan experience with a mixed economy shows that it is not necessary to nationalize all of Lenin's "commanding heights" to achieve control over the most important sectors of the economy. By nationalizing the banking system and foreign trade, it is possible to introduce some kind of central planning in export agriculture-very important for small developing countries-and in almost all manufacturing production. By 1988, the accumulation policy and the price policy were still largely unaltered and the imbalances had increased. The reform measures did have positive effects on agricultural and industrial exports, but these were largely lost in 1988 because of a damaging hurricane in that year.
