Capitalist countries do well, Soviets loosen up, + third interesting economic system?

...I do want my society to avoid the trap of cash agriculture. I want them to have a very strong social norm that sharecroppers and small holders are to be treated fairly, backed up by both formal and informal leaders....
To avoid cash crop agriculture, make the farming ground sparser and more valuable. Most cash crops depend on extensive cultivation: not much yield per acre of land, but lots of land. Going with 'intensive cultivation': not that much land but through very intensive labor lots of yield. This would skew the market towards producing small amounts of valuable crop. Think speciality vegetables, fruit trees and labor-intensive staple foods like Japanese rice. It would also make the labor input more valuable then the ground, which will again benefit sharecroppers. It would also encourage treated food instead of bulk material: pickled and marinated vegetables, fruit jellies and chutneys as a second source of income and possible even a little bakery on your farm....

As for the industrialization plans you laid out: small parts in the 1950's high tech thereafter, the main requirement is a thorough and widespread education to make the step from workers to mechanics to engineers. Free education is one way, but most important is a culture that encourages learning and values knowledge even if it has no obvious practical application. Something along the lines of 'Okay, a guy that has learned 500 poems by heart can also learn 100 training scenarios on how to respond to irate clients.'
 
And better yet, the executives work full shifts at various tasks within the enterprise. For example, every couple of weeks or so, a longtime executive might take a shift running a register. And as part of the societal norm of solid interplay between theory and practice, this is viewed just as a given, plus as a way to stay sharp.

The occasional executive who doesn't do this is viewed as okay, but a little unusual.
 
And some of the lawyers have been to law school, and some haven't.

Instead of the balance between socialism and capitalism, this society works the balance between formal and informal economy. They avoid the trap of just having a formal overlay on top of the informal way of doing things. Rather, they ramp up organically with what works for them.

So, when legal professionals visit this country, for they do have an admirable legal system, a judge or lawyer often has a little fun and doesn't say whether he or she has been to law school, at least until they've discussed issues a liitle. And often the visiting professionals are surprised at who hasn't been to formal law school.
 
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