Which of the following are associated with the term 'Shock Therapy'?
(a) total shift to a capitalist economy
(b) private ownership of means of production
(c) State-controlled polity
(d) currency convertibility

Choose the correct option

(a), (b) and (d) are correct

The model of transition in Russia, Central Asia and east Europe that was influenced by the World Bank and the IMF came to be known as ‘shock therapy’. Each of these countries was required to make a total shift to a capitalist economy, which meant rooting out completely any structures evolved during the Soviet period. Above all, it meant that private ownership was to be the dominant pattern of ownership of property. Privatisation of state assets and corporate ownership patterns were to be immediately brought in. Collective farms were to be replaced by private farming and capitalism in agriculture. This transition ruled out any alternate or ‘third way’, other than state-controlled socialism or capitalism.