what are the main features of the maoist period?

Question

and what are the positive and negative aspects of this economic model?

Answer 1

Mao gained power in 1949, and ruled until 1976. The two key periods of Maoism:
- The Great Leap Forward, 1958-60, in which Mao attempted to turn China into an agricultural workers paradise. It failed disastrously, creating a major economic depression.
- The Cultural Revolution, 1966-69, when Mao jailed over one million people in an attempt to "purify" the political culture of China.

Great Leap Forward:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/glf.html
(cool propaganda posters)
http://www.mindground.net/glp.html
(excellent bibliography)

Cultural Revolution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/
http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/history.html
http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/crc.html

Answer 2

POSITIVE ASPECTS
[1] Mao created a strong central government.
[2] He enforced a complete end to foreign domination (including, eventually, Soviet domination) of China's trade and industry.
[3] He initiated Soviet-style industrialization of China, with concentration on heavy industry.

NEGATIVE ASPECTS
[1] Long after the civil war against the Nationalists was over, Mao's revolutionary vision and his contempt for human life (except his own) produced policies which caused the deaths of many millions of his own people. Quite apart from any moral dimension, that equals wasteful economic policy.
[2] Mao's worst period was certainly the Great Leap Forward (1958-61) in which utterly misguided policies for agriculture devastated the land and created terrible famine.
[3] The Cultural Revolution (1966-69) was not quite so bad, if only because it was concentrated within the cities, and had less impact on rural areas just beginning to recover from the Great Leap Forward. Nevertheless the torture-murders of masses of intellectuals, and the climate of terrified conformity that ensued, produced economic stagnation. It wasn't safe to have a good idea: Chairman Mao was the only person allowed to have ideas.
[4] Thus, when Mao finally had the decency to die, China had reverted to isolationism and its economy was stagnant.
[5] Poverty and outright starvation had been reduced, and average life expectancy had increased dramatically. But China's material living standards had ceased to improve. By comparison with capitalist neighboring states (e.g. Taiwan, Japan, South Korea), Mao had turned China into an economic sloth.
[6] Private ownership and incentive was virtually non-existent. In agriculture, state-owned communes were inefficient producers. In industry, state-owned factories produced poor quality goods, were shielded from competitive reality by state-funding, and had only to make their quota of products, not bother about profits.
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It fell to Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, to begin undoing the mess that Mao had created, and to free China into becoming the economic powerhouse that is its destiny.