Topic 1: economic systems

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The survival of any society depends on its ability to provide food, clothing and shelter for its people. Since these societies are also faced with scarcity decisions concerning What, How and for Whom to produce must be made.

All societies have something else in common. They have an economic system or an organized way of providing for the wants and needs of their people. The way in which these decisions are made will determine the type of economic system they have. There are three major kinds of economic systems: traditional, command and market.

Traditional Economy

In a society with a traditional economy nearly all economic activity is the result of ritual and custom. Habit and custom also prescribe most social behaviour. Individuals are not free to make decisions based on what they want or would like to have. Instead, their roles are defined. They know what goods and services will be produced, how to produce them, and how such goods and services will be distributed.

An example of traditional economy is the society of polar eskimo of the last century. For generations, parents taught their children how to survive in a harsh climate, make tools, fish and hunt. Their children, in turn, taught these skills to the next generation. The main advantage of the traditional economy is that everyone has a role in it. This helps keep economic life stable and community life continuous. The main disadvantage of the traditional economy is that it tends to discourage new ideas and even punishes people for breaking rules or doing things differently. So it tends to be stagnant or fails to grow over time.