NATIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
I. Remember the pronunciation of the following words. Translate them and learn their meanings. feature [ `fi:tS{] control [k{n`troul] multitude [`m[ltItju:d ] familiar [f{`mIlj{] technique [tek `ni:k] mutually [`mju:tju{lI] hierarchy [`haI{ra:kI] chaotic [keI`OtIk] official [{`fiS{l] fraud [`frO:d] command [k{`ma:nd ] administrative [{d`mInIstr{tIv] criteria [kraI`tI{rI{] consistent [k{n`sIst{nt] percentage [p{`sentIdZ] substantial [s{b`st@nS{l]
II. Remember how the following words are formed. Read and translate them.
Decide - decided - decision - decisive distribute - distribution - redistribution measure - measurable - measuring - measurement rely - reliable - unreliable - reliability - reliably - reliant - reliance
III. Read and understand the text. Use a dictionary.
NATIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEMS. The global economy consists of about 150 independent national economies ranging from small islands to 50 or so countries of substantial size. These economies can be and have been classified in variety of ways. A familiar classification is by level of per capital outputs: “less developed” and “more developed” countries, or low-income, middle-income and high-income countries. Another classification is by the composition of output: industrialized economies versus agricultural or primary-producing economies. Such categories, however, do not reveal the basic structural feature of the economy. The most important of these are, first, the ownership of productive resources, and, second, the method for coordinating resource use. Resource ownership. By historical usage, socialism is identified with public ownership of the means of production - certain capital goods, and possibly land, as well. Under capitalism these resources are privately owned. This is clearly not a black-and-white division, but rather a matter of degree. There is no country that has no state ownership, but neither is there any country that has complete state ownership. Resource use. Any economy must take a variety of decisions: how much of each good to produce, what production methods to use, and how to distribute the national output. Moreover these decisions are interrelated. The answer must be mutually consistent. This means that there is a problem of coordination, of ensuring that the multitude of individual decisions fit into consistent whole. There are two alternative techniques for coordination: the principle of market, and the principle of hierarchy. Market coordination involves buyers and sellers, getting together to exchange goods, securities, labour, or whatever. Markets are not chaotic. On the contrary, they are rather orderly and predictable. A market is a device for economic coordination and control, and it is an efficient device in the sense of economizing on central administration. No one has to oversee the market beyond establishing communication facilities and setting up ground rules to prevent fraud and deception. We can illustrate the opposite principle of hierarchy by looking at a government agency or a large business organisation. At the top of organisation is a “boss” - the secretary of agriculture, or the board chairman of a big company. Below this there are several levels of lower official, the number of levels increases with the size of organisation. Up through the hierarchy from ground level flow progress reports, ideas and suggestions, requests for staff and finance. Down the line from the top come decisions, orders, instructions. Such a structure of national economy is usually called administrative, or command, or planned economy. While market coordination and administrative coordination are logical alternatives, in practice they always exist. There is no economy in which all production is coordinated through the market. Neither is there any economy in which market relations are entirely absent. Using these two criteria we can locate national economic systems measuring the percentage of productive resources owned by the state, on the one hand, and measuring the degree of reliance on administrative coordination of resource use, on the other. We see then that there are substantial differences between the countries of one and the same group, say, “less developed” countries. The observation shows that once a certain private-public division of resource ownership becomes established in a country, it tends to remain rather stable. You should bear in mind that there might be any substantial shift in location of national economy over the course of time either because of redistribution of resource ownership, or due to relaxation or tightening of administrative controls. The vivid example is China and Poland. In some of the Western countries, too, there has been a reaction against government controls. Good economic performance of any type of economy can be established on the basis of the following important criteria: 1. Level of resource use (full employment). 2. Efficiency of resource use (static efficiency). 3. Rate of capital formation (dynamic efficiency). 4. Rate of invention and technical progress. 5. Distribution of income. Additional criteria include: economic growth, that is, rate of increase in GDP/GNP per capita, economic stability, price stability, output stability and flexibility, that is ability to adapt rapidly to change in resource supplies, production, techniques, and consumer preferences.
IV. Find the correct translation of words and word combinations.
A. 1. Global economy, 2. national economy, 3. per capita, 4. composition of output, 5. industrialized economy, 6. agricultural economy, 7. capital goods, 8. orderly, 9. predictable, 10. progress report, 11. productive resources, 12. relaxation, 13. tightening, 14. rate of increase, 15. capital formation, 16. gross domestic product (GDP), 17. gross national product (GNP), 18. flexibility, 19. consumer’s preference.
B. 1. Валовой внутренний продукт, 2. упорядоченный, 3. темп прироста, темп увеличения, 4. предпочтение потребителя, 5. экономика мирового хозяйства, 6. средства производства, 7. прогнозируемый, предсказуемый, 8. гибкость, эластичность, 9. ослабление, спад, 10. национальная экономика, 11на душу населения, 12. сообщение о состоянии работ, 13. валовой национальный продукт, 14. структура производства, 15. экономика сельского хозяйства, 16. производственные ресурсы, 17. ужесточение, 18. промышленная экономика, 19.накопление (реального) капитала, капиталообразование.
V. Read the following words and word combinations and give their Russian equivalents. 1. To range from... to.... 2. By historical usage. 3. Under capitalism. 4. Whatever. 5. Versus. 6. On the contrary. 7. Due to. 8. To coexist. 9. Features of the economy. 10. A matter of degree. 11. Communication facilities. 12. Entirely. 13. To measure the percentage. 14. The degree of reliance. 15. To bear in mind. 16. Vivid example. 17. To make a variety of decisions.
VI. Increase your vocabulary.
A. a. economic (a) -1. экономический, хозяйственный 2. экономный, экономически выгодный, рентабельный b. economical (a) -1. экономный, бережливый 2. экономичный c. economically (adv) -1. экономно, бережливо 2. с экономической точки зрения d. economics (n) -1. экономика, народное хозяйство 2. экономическая наука 3. хозяйство e. economist (n) -1. экономист 2. экономный хозяин, бережливый человек f. economize (v) - экономить, экономно расходовать или использовать g. economy (n) -1. хозяйство, экономика 2. экономия, бережливость 3. (мн. ч.) сбережения 4. система, структура
B. Read and translate the following sentences:
1. An economic system is the way in which a country uses its available resources to satisfy the demands of its inhabitants for goods and services. 2. In a true market economy the government plays no role in the management of the economy, the government does not intervene in it. 3. The UK is a mixed economy: some services are provided by the state (for example, health care and defence) whilst a range of privately owned businesses offer other goods and services. 4. Economics is the study of how people choose to allocate scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants. 5. A small car is more economical than a large one, because it uses less petrol. 6. He economized by using buses instead of taking taxies. 7. In the long run, it is an economy to buy good quality goods, even though they cost more. 8. Economists spend a lot of time trying to develop models of the working of the economy. 9. In a mixed economy the government and the private sector interact in solving economic problems. 10. Positive economics deals with objective or scientific explanations of the working of the economy.
C. Fill in the gaps with the words given below (some words can be used more than once): economic, economical, economize, economies, economy, economically, economists. 1. The country is in a bad... state. 2. The people in that region live very.... 3. David Ricardo is one of history’s most influential.... 4. For most people it is more... to travel by car (it costs less). 5. A major problem faced by command or planned... is that of deciding what to produce. 6. … statistics are presented in many forms, the most common being graphs and tables. 7. We must... on light and fuel. 8. The main problem in... is the question of allocating scarce resources between competing uses. 9. The first... question is “for whom does the world... produce”. 10. By various little..., she managed to save enough money for a holiday.
VII. Form adjectives from the following nouns and verbs:
globe, agriculture, nation, to depend, to predict, to relate, to administrate, to correspond, to express.
VIII. Analyse the morphological structure of the following words. State to what part of speech they belong.
Substantial, classification, productive, historical, socialism, possibly, structure, flexibility, buyer, privately, alternative, decision, mutually, chaotic.
IX. Check your prepositions. Insert a suitable preposition in each of the blanks in these sentences.
1. She’s always thinking... ways to increase the sales. 2. She is interested... marketing. 3. They contain some businesses owned and run... the state. 4. The system is based... private enterprise with private ownership.. the means of production. 5. They spend their wages... the products and services they need. 6. Consumers will be willing to pay high prices... products they desire. 7. We can see changes... the price of goods which are related... each other. 8. Non-essential commodities like calculators cannot be compared... basic commodities like fuel.
X. a) Open the brackets, putting the verbs in the correct active or passive forms.
The economic development of various countries (never to be) (1) and can never be even, depending as it (to do) (2) on a whole range of natural, climatic, demographic, social, historical, cultural, technological, organisational-economic, political, internal, external factors. Over the years the economy of each individual country also (to develop) (3) unevenly. The combination of the above factors (to account for) (4) the generally uneven development of individual countries and nations in the course of the worldwide historical process. There (to be) (5) no division into the rich and poor countries when the great civilisations of Ancient Egypt, India, the Far East and Aztec states (to blossom) (6) and the people in Europe, Northern Asia and America (to organize) (7) in primitive societies. The division (to occur) (8) fairly recently as one of the most characteristic traits of the world economy. Why this (to happen) (9)? The answer to this question (to vary) (10). For instance, the French economist Maurice Guernier (to stress) (11) the importance of natural and geographical factors. The English scholar Graham Jones (to emphasise) (12) the role of national mentality. However, to judge from history, uneven development (to observe) (13) in the countries situated in similar climatic zones and in peoples of similar economic inclinations. Moreover, despite the accelerated economic growth registered by developing countries, the gap separating them from industrial countries (not to close) (14) but (to grow) (15) wider.
b) Sum up the text in 5-7 sentences.
XI. Find definitions to each of the given terms:
1. Market a) an established standard or principle on which a judgement is based. 2. Economics b) an organization of a system into higher and lower, esp. official ranks. 3. Hierarchy c) money which one receives regularly, payment for one’s work or interest from investment. 4. Criterion d) the science or principles of the way in which industry and trade produce and use wealth. 5. Income e) an organized group of buyers and sellers of a particular economic good who are sufficiently in touch with each other personally or by telephone for all to know the current conditions of demand and supply.
XII. Ask each other questions on the main issues of the text.
XIII. Single out the main points of the text. Use the following phrases:
The text deals with the issues of.... One of the main points to be singled out is.... Great importance is also attached to.... It further says that.... It is clear from the text that.... In this connection, I’d like to say....
XIV. Translate the following sentences into English.
1. Экономические системы разных стран отличаются друг от друга; каждая из них имеет свои особенности. 2. Рыночная экономика дает людям свободу покупать что они хотят, и продавать произведенные ими товары. 3. В рыночной экономике у государства очень мало экономических функций. 4. Самой важной характеристикой командной экономики является государственная собственность на средства производства. 5. В большинстве стран современного мира существует смешанная экономика. Она имеет и государственный, и частный секторы: одни предприятия принадлежат государству, другие - частным лицам.
XV. Get ready to speak about national economic systems.
Keys
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