Economic Relations between the Socialist and the Capitalist Countries: Results, Problems, Prospects

Abstract

Economic cooperation between socialist and capitalist states is a special sector of international relations. This special character is first of all due to the fact that economic cooperation represents an area where two opposing forces, groupings of states with different social systems, confront and interact. Each of them is developing in conformity with its own social and economic laws. Each has adopted its own economic mechanism: the socialist economy is planned while the capitalist economy is characterized by reliance on market forces. Finally, the two differ in their way of conducting foreign economic relations: in contrast to the capitalist principles of competition the socialist countries have adopted state monopoly of foreign trade.