A Survey Based Study of Public Awareness and Perceptions about Various Economic Systems and India as a Mixed Economy

Abstract

Economic Systems are a medium used by governments and societies to arrange and allocate all the goods, services and resources across a nation.  The major types of economic systems include Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and Mixed Economy.  India shifted gears from a mixed economy with a socialist bent to a more capitalist bent in the last three decades.  This started with the introduction of liberalization, privatization and globalization policy by the government in 1991. This strategy has its own set of opportunities and issues for India. Against this backdrop, this study aims to assess the public understanding of various economic systems, to analyze if public supports the India’s current economic system as mixed economy with a capitalist bent, to study how mixed economy contributes in terms of support to business and quality of life in India and to compare public perceptions about various economic systems on selected parameters. Primary data was collected for this study from 206 respondents using a structured questionnaire and judgement sampling. Findings of the study point to a low understanding for mixed economy in India.  The major improvement required in India’s mixed economy is better regulation of private sector and stronger social welfare policy. People perceive that mixed economy has not solved the problem of poverty for India. Economic systems are compared on eight select parameters and capitalism ranks as the best on five and socialism ranks as the best on remaining three parameters. This study provides several implications for future research in this field and for practice in the stakeholder fields of education, governance, entrepreneurship, business and media.