The Great Leap Forward Case Study

Register to read the introduction… It did have moderate success, but it did more damage than good. The Great Leap Forward was a failure on Mao’s part of becoming an economist because it led to famine, the production of poor-quality goods, deep debt for China, exhaustion and demoralization of the peasantry, severe management problems by party cadres of all levels, and it had a negative impact on China’s environment. The Great Leap Forward took a great toll on human life, despite its minor successes.
People across the nation were required to make steel. Planners believed the single commodity would allow industries to develop and …show more content…
Former farmers had no idea how to actually use the new factories. Industrialization was pushed too fast; there was an immense overproduction of goods in such a short amount of time so factories began to crash. Factories were overcrowded and machines were faulty and very dangerous. Long working hours meant workers fell asleep on the job, which increased their rate of getting severely injured around the faulty machine parts that fell off as soon as they were used. Therefore, factory life during the Great Leap Forward had a negative impact on the Chinese …show more content…
People were being asked to participate in physically demanding projects, but were not consistently provided with sufficient extra food rations. Without these gigantic irrigation projects, there would probably not have been any starvation in Jimo and the grain shortage and the aftermath would have been much less severe. It was, at the very least, unpractical to engage in such a gigantic investment of labour in such a short time and without sufficient food rations. Clearly, government leaders were guilty of miscalculation and mismanagement of human and financial resources during the Great Leap