Socialist challenge: calculation or contestability?

Abstract

Due to the recent discussion in the Review of Political Economy there was observed the reignited debate on the nature of the socialist system and economic calculation challenge [Denis, 2015; Bylund, Manish, 2017]. In the paper I will not discuss directly the theses of both sides. I will attempt to show their polemic results of the ambiguity of the initial calculation argument [Mises, 1990]. It appears that the argument against the possibility of socialism could be called “the contestability argument” rather than “the calculation argument”. The goal of this paper is to reformulate the initial argument about the economic rationality of socialist projects.