>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 05/12/00 10:55AM >>>
More delicious to me is the bit about the share of the economy that is no longer socialized. Suppose it proved to be the case that the PRC had a higher share in private hands than, say, some of the Nordic countries. Where does that leave the case for indifference to bourgeois democratic norms, for the sake of greater economic whatever? Carrol? CB? Yoshie (if you're not in jail)?
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CB: Was the SU a socialist country at the time of the NEP ?
The figures on China were something like 1/3 in private, 1/3 in state owned. That leaves out 1/3. What gives ?
Remember when Samuelson and Galbraith were saying that the U.S. had a mixed capitalist/socialist economy ? Well, that wasn't necessarily their exact words, but they did say mixed. Socialism and capitalism were converging.
What is your answer to my questions about the definition of demcracy starting with popular soveriegnty ? That must be answered before we get into "bourgeois democratic norms" ? What is the locus of these "norms" ( not that they are really followed normally , fully, in bourgeois countries) in your theory of democracy ?
Bourgeois "democratic norms" are what , in your question ? Freedom of enterprise ? Freedom of religion ? Freedom of the bourgeoisie to contest for state power ?
The bourgeoisie should not be allowed to contest for state power in China , in my opinion.
The key to me is that the Chinese Communist Party still claims they are aiming for socialism.
The fomenting of some capitalism along the way seems to be drawing lessons from the history of socialism since the Russian Revolution, which is entirely in barely or non-capitalist countries; and a recognition that Engels and Marx sometimes called rigid schema of historical stages has some objective force. That is, there is no road to socialism that completely bypasses capitalism. It is difficult to make an artificial proletariat that does not go through some real struggle with a real bourgeoisie. The harsh struggles of capitalism are something of a necessary preparation for socialism, especially in a world where the advanced capitalist countries are still capitalist.
Remember, China is a PEOPLES ,not socialist republic. There is a reason for that name.
CB