In Praise of Maoist Economic Planning: Living Standards and Economic Development in Sichuan Since 1931.

• Author: Thornton, James R.

This is an interesting book of value both to China specialists and to others with only limited knowledge of Chinese economic development. The title accurately captures the purpose and conclusion of the book and, needless to say, this conclusion is controversial. But no matter whether one ultimately agrees or disagrees with Bramall's overall assessment of China's economic development under Mao, Bramall presents the case fairly, nondogmatically, and with a good humored acknowledgment of the extent of room for disagreement.

The breadth of the scholarship is daunting. The bibliography is broken into two sections, Chinese and Western language sources. Though I am not a China specialist and therefore am not in a position to make a definitive judgement, Bramall's deft references to various episodes in Chinese history suggests an excellent command of Chinese history. I am familiar with much of the economic literature on the former Soviet Union and am very impressed by Bramall's ability to draw the appropriate parallels between the two country's courses of economic development. Moreover, Bramall has mastered a lot of Marxian economics; the jargon is always used appropriately. Finally, Bramall moves confidently (if not sympathetically) through neoclassical economics. Although obviously disdainful of much of the technical side of modern economics, Bramall is familiar with the arguments and understands them. For example, the reference to Cobb-Douglas versus CES production function analyses of the Soviet Union's growth is entirely apt. And while Bramall does not use the principal-agent jargon when discussing tenant farming during the 1930s, Bramall clearly understands the need for the landowner to share some of the risk with the peasant. The only serious economic omission was the lack of any references to the recent convergence literature by, e.g., Barro and Sala-i-Martin in the Journal of Political Economy (no. 2, 1992).

Bramall's primary thesis is straight forward: too much of the recent work on Maoist economic development is overly negative. To show this, Bramall compares the living standards in Sichuan (also spelled Szechwan) Province in the 1930s with those in late Mao. Sichuan is an interior province and therefore was poor in the thirties relative to the coastal provinces. Mao said he would rectify this. Bramall believes data problems prevent a comparison for all of China between the 1930s and 1970s. Indeed, much of the Sichuan data used was...