marxism on wgn-fm

[Brad DeLong]

>George Thomas: you wrongly conflate capitalism (an economic system) 
>with authoritarianism (or totalitarianism, forms of rule).  What 
>examples would you bring forth to show that capitalism itself (and 
>not a dictator or other despot) is at fault?
>>
>
>George, you are trying to have it both ways when you slam historical 
>Communsim (Stalinism) with _political_ repression and murders drawn 
>from the Black Book and other more reliable sources, but try to get 
>capitalims off the hook as a merely economic system, never mind its 
>politics. Let's compare apples with apples.

Well, if we want to compare apples with apples, I would suggest the 
following taxonomy of economies:

A. Centrally-Planned Economies
B. Plan-Heavy Economies with Some Worker Control
C. Social-Market Economies
D. Free-Market Economies

And the following taxonomy of polities:

1. Pure Totalitarian Terror
2. Authoritarian Dictatorship
3. Oligarchic Politics
4. Party-Centered Mass Politics
5. Media-Centered Mass Politics
6. A Free Society of Associated Producers

We have lots of examples of A1 and A3. We have one example 
(Yugoslavia) of B2. I will defer to others as to whether pre-1989 
Hungary counts as B3 and whether China today is B3 or C3. We 
certainly have examples of C1 and lots of examples of C2, D2, C3, and 
D3. And we have some examples of C4, C5, D4, and D5.

But damned if I can think of an example of A4, B4, A5, or B5 (with 
the caveat that Nicaragua or Chile *might* have been able to develop 
into one if left alone).

And I see no examples of 6.

All in all, I think--following Roberto M. Unger--that the links 
between economic systems and political possibilities are not as 
strong as we usually imagine. But I don't doubt that the links are 
there, and that I don't understand them.

Brad DeLong