A command economy is a system of government in which a centralized government controls all economic aspects including prices, how much to produce, how much to sell, and assigned raw materials. Many communist countries including the former Soviet State practiced this form of government. Their economy consisted of and economy in which government planning dominates the direction of economic activity, and market forces are not allowed to do so to any considerable degree. An advantage for the state was that with all regulations, the state could determine how much was needed to buy and sell in order to make capital for the nation and economic improvement. With money to spend, the Soviet State was allowed for industrial advances. From this command economy, the Soviet State was able to prosper. However, this was soon looked down upon when the command economy was unorganized and corrupt. There seemed to be an inefficient resource distribution because direct contact with the distributers was unavailable. With the government in control of every aspect of the economy, they were unable to reach the distributers and therefore the resources were misplaced. Also the government lacked an accurate count of how many things were being sent out and brought in so surpluses and shortages were often present. The economy was seen to be sloppy and unorganized and this was a main criticism of the people. The Soviet Union was unstable and urged for change because the government could not keep up with all of the production. This change eventually occurred but it was a very corrupt and problematic change. The Soviet State did not have a smooth transition into their new economic idea.